National Voters' Day a tragic farce by ECI: Mamata

Terming the Election Commission of India's (ECI) celebration of National Voters' Day as a "tragic farce", West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday accused the poll panel of bulldozing the Opposition and destroying the foundation of the country's democracy on "behalf of the BJP".

Banerjee alleged that the commission was working as "his master's voice" and was busy "snatching away" people's voting rights.

"On behalf of BJP, their Master, they are busy in bulldozing the opposition and destroying the foundation of Indian democracy, and yet they have the guts to celebrate Voters' Day!!" Banerjee wrote on X.

The chief minister has been accusing the ECI of holding the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal — where Assembly polls are due in a few weeks — in undue haste.

"Election Commission of India is celebrating National Voters' Day today, and what a tragic farce that is! The Commission -- working as His Master's Voice -- is busy now in snatching away people's voting rights, and they have the temerity to celebrate Voters' Day! I am deeply distressed and disturbed by their conduct today," the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief wrote in her social media post.

She also claimed, "Instead of complying with the Hon'ble Supreme Court's verdict and working as per rules and norms to provide and protect the democratic voting rights of people, ECI is finding newer and newer pretexts in the name of logical discrepancy to harass the people and try to deny them and take away from them their electoral rights!"

After the completion of the first phase of the SIR, the draft electoral rolls, published on 16 December last year, showed the electorate shrinking from 7.66 crore to 7.08 crore, with over 58 lakh names deleted statewide.

The second phase of the SIR is currently underway and involves hearings of electors under scrutiny, including those flagged for controversial 'logical discrepancies' and voters whose records lack mapping.

Accusing the ECI of "torturing people in an unprecedented manner", Banerjee said, "More than 130 persons have died because of your tortures."

"Can you summon-- the way you are doing-- persons above 85, 90, 95 years of age, and even physically challenged persons to physically appear before you to prove their credentials? The stress caused by this kind of illegal pressure is leading to a series of suicides and deaths, and yet you are continuing to do this at the behest of your political masters," Banerjee alleged.

She claimed the poll panel has made the exercise "NRC trial for citizens, including particularly those belonging to minorities, scheduled castes and tribes".

Maintaining that elections are festivals of democracy, the chief minister said, "But your partisan conduct and unilateral illegalities, dispatch of micro-observers to compound the harassment, your push to people to jaws of death have been destroying our democracy. Today, you have no right to celebrate the Voters' Day!"

The ECI on Saturday evening uploaded on its website the names of people on the SIR logical discrepancies list following an order of the Supreme Court, according to a poll panel official. The district electoral officers would download the list and display it on panchayat bhavans and block offices as directed by the court.

The apex court had on 19 January directed the ECI to display the names of those on the 'logical discrepancies' list at gram panchayat bhavans, block offices of talukas and ward offices in West Bengal by Saturday.

Noting that 1.25 crore voters in the state figure on the logical discrepancies list, a three-judge bench directed that the offices for submitting documents and objections be set up within the panchayat bhavans or block offices and asked the West Bengal government to provide adequate human resources to election authorities.

The court directed that the director-general of police of West Bengal shall be obligated to ensure that there is no law-and-order problem and that all the activities shall be completed smoothly.

With PTI inputs