TMC to intensify demand for discussion on SIR in Parliament

New Delhi: With the Lok Sabha all set to start discussion on Operation Sindoor on Monday, the Trinamool Congress on Friday stepped up its demand for an immediate discussion on its “top priority issue” of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls at the earliest and indicated that it will “shift the gears on the protest to the fifth” next week.

The Trinamool views SIR in Bihar as just a “rehearsal” for West Bengal while alleging that the ruling BJP would go to any extent to trouble them in the Assembly elections next April-May. Days after top leaders of I.N.D.I.A bloc deliberated on holding a march to the EC, the Mamata-led party said they should “gherao” the ‘Nirvachan Sadan’, which houses the poll body.

Trinamool sources said SIR, the insult heaped on Bengal and attack on Bengali migrant workers in other states and Operation Sindoor are their prominent priorities. However, sources said, throughout next week, they would demand a discussion on SIR.

“The SIR issue is Trinamool Congress’ top priority for discussion in Parliament,” party's Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O'Brien said. In the first week of Monsoon Session, several party MPs have submitted notices in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha for an immediate discussion on SIR issue along with other I.N.D.I.A MPs.

O’Brien said the EC has a mandate to conduct elections as a Constitutional body but one cannot allow genuine citizens who are voters to be removed from the electoral rollssssss. The EC is operating like a BJP branch office, he alleged.

“Opposition is together in opposing this. The SIR has to be discussed in Parliament. You are trying to remove people from the voters’ list, this is amounting to total interference and blatant cheating. We are talking to like-minded parties. We should also go and gherao the EC. This is not just about Bihar. It’s a dangerous ploy nationally,” he said.

Putting the onus on the smooth functioning of Parliament next week, he said, “we want Parliament to run, every Opposition party wants Parliament to run. We want discussion under any rule on SIR. If the government does not allow that, it means they want to disrupt the House. Why have they called 1,000 BLOs from Bengal under the guise of a training programme? What devious plans do they have?” he said.

At the Lok Sabha floor leaders' meeting convened by Speaker Om Birla on Friday, Trinamool Congress Deputy Leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar was among the leaders who raised the demand for a discussion on SIR though the government did not show much interest.

It was made clear to the leaders that SIR cannot be discussed as the EC is a Constitutional body and it cannot respond to issues raised about the exercise in Parliament. The government reasoned with the leaders about the impropriety in the government responding on the EC’s behalf, sources said.

Sources also said the floor leaders’ attention was invited to a previous instance during Balram Jakhar’s tenure as Speaker when a demand by then senior CPI(M) MP Basudev Acharia to discuss the functioning of the Election Commission was not allowed. Jakhar was Speaker between January 1980 and November 1989.