8L names deleted in first supplementary list in West Bengal SIR: Mamata Banerjee

The Chief Minister demanded that physical copies of the supplementary list published online be immediately made available so that the information could be verified.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday claimed that eight lakh names have been deleted in the first supplementary list from the 27 lakh electors whose voting eligibility was adjudicated as part of the SIR exercise.

While addressing an election rally at Naxalbari in the Siliguri subdivision of Darjeeling district, she slammed the BJP for "causing misery" to the people by enforcing an "ill-planned SIR".

Banerjee demanded that physical copies of the supplementary list published online be immediately made available so that the information could be verified.

"I have been told that 8 lakh names of 27 lakh voters under adjudication have been deleted from the first supplementary list. But where is that list? Why have hard copies of that list not yet been put up in government offices so far?" the West Bengal CM posed.

She said, "I can only verify the information after that list is displayed."

The first supplemantary list of 60 lakh-odd names of voters under judicial scrutiny was published by the Election Commission late on Monday night, but the poll body is yet to officially confirm either the total number of adjudicated voters in that list or the deletion figure.

The West Bengal Chief Minster alleged that when elderly citizens were made to stand in SIR queues and their citizenship questioned, "how can the BJP dare to come to the same people seeking votes?"

"Till the time I am around, there will be no NRC exercise in Bengal and no detention camps will be allowed to be built," she asserted.

(With PTI inputs)