Kolkata: Opposition parties in Bengal on Tuesday demanded that 27 lakh voters whose names were deleted by judicial officers during SIR be allowed to apply for fresh enrolment through Form 6.Netas of Mamata Trinamool, Left Front and Congress alleged that EC was acting at BJP’s behest to facilitate the deletion of lakhs of names from the electoral rolls through Form 7.At an all-party meeting with CEO Neelam Meena, opposition netas also questioned the filing of 16 lakh appeals before the tribunal. They alleged that officials from the CEO’s office filed the appeals and sought the deletion of voters whose names judicial officers had already cleared.Mamata TMC’s Kunal Ghosh alleged that EC was imposing the SSR while SIR appeals were still pending. Ghosh said, “The voters whose names were deleted on the grounds of logical discrepancies should be allowed to fill Form 6 for re-enrolment.”“Special observer Subrata Gupta claimed that he had no information about filing 16 lakh appeals for exclusion. Then who filed those appeals? The CEO told us that it happened before she assumed charge. The CEO office has become a post office,” he alleged.Raising the issue of Form 7, CPM’s Palash Das asked, “Is this a project for mass deletion of voters in the interest of BJP?”Congress’s Ashutosh Chatterjee said, “Since Sept 21, tribunals could not upload their orders. The tribunal for Kolkata has no judge. Why? Who will bear responsibility?”In the meeting, BJP’s Sisir Bajoria pointed out that an elector in the Barabani assembly constituency was linked to 389 voters as their father. Similarly, in Bally, 310 voters linked an elector as their father.In a separate event, former Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar said, “We do not accept SIR. Civic polls should be held after including all eligible voters in the electoral roll. It should be held after the SSR.”“Go back to the voters’ list before SIR,” Harsh Mander said.
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