Allegations of mass voter deletion in West Bengal 'false narrative' for political mileage: EC to Supreme Court

Rejecting allegations of "large scale voter deletion" in West Bengal, the Election Commission told the Supreme Court that the charges are "false" and an attempt to further vested "political interests".

The allegations are being spread as a "narrative" in the media to gain political mileage, the poll body said in an affidavit, NDTV reported.

Replying to a plea filed by TMC MP, Dola Sen on SIR, the EC said, "The voter list revision is constitutional, regular and necessary process."

The development comes amid a section of BLOs, engaged in the SIR process in West Bengal, holding a massive protest outside the CEO's office here on Monday over alleged excessive workload during the ongoing enumeration exercise, prompting the authorities to increase police deployment at the demonstration site.

Demonstrators also intensified their protest, raised slogans and attempted to breach the police barricades as a BJP delegation led by Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari arrived there for a meeting with election officials.

On the other side, alleging irregularities during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in West Bengal, the BJP on Monday demanded an audit of all 1.25 crore entries made between November 26 and 28 in the enumeration process.

Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari and other BJP MLAs met the chief electoral officer (CEO) at his office, even as representatives of the BLO Adhikar Raksha Committee demonstrated outside the premises, seeking more time for completing the SIR exercise.

Adhikari alleged that political consultancy agency I-PAC was "interfering in the data entry process" during the ongoing SIR exercise in the state.

He claimed that the CEO's office itself is not safe, alleging that the Kolkata Police was acting in a partisan manner.

(With PTI inputs)