Mamata Banerjee accuses ECI of selectively ‘targeting’ minority voters in Bengal

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on Friday, accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of deliberately targeting the minority voters for deletion through the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state.

She also claimed that around 90,000 voters in the minority-dominated Malda district are slated to be deleted in the final voters’ list.

“The grievance of the people from the minority community is quite justified. The voters from this community are specially targeted. I heard that the names of 90,000 voters in Malda district alone are being considered for deletion. Besides the voters from the minority community, the voters from backward class communities like Matuas, Rajvansis, and tribal communities are also being targeted. They are not sparing even acclaimed persons like Amartya Sen and poet Joy Goswami, among others,” the Chief Minister told media persons at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata before leaving for North Bengal.

The Chief Minister is slated to inaugurate the Mahakal temple at Matigara-Naxalbari in Darjeeling district later on Friday.

Referring to the ongoing tension at Beldanga in Murshidabad district since Friday morning after the return of a local migrant worker allegedly killed in the neighbouring Jharkhand, the Chief Minister Banerjee asked the protesters to maintain restraint.

“We all know who is behind instigating the people at Beldanga. But I am appealing to all the people to maintain peace. Do not get trapped in any kind of provocation. There is a deliberate attempt to spread violence in West Bengal. The BJP is behind all these. At the same time, the central agencies are also used in this controversy,” the Chief Minister said.

Speaking on the occasion, she also said that the migrant workers from West Bengal are specially targeted and killed in the BJP-ruled states.

“I am looking into such matters. My (Trinamool Congress) government is standing in solidarity with the families of such migrant workers,” the Chief Minister said.

However, she did not comment on the developments at the Supreme Court on Thursday when the apex court stayed the FIRs registered by the West Bengal Police against Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in connection with the recent searches at the premises of political consultancy firm I-PAC and the residence of its co-founder Pratik Jain in Kolkata.

Saying that the petitions raise serious questions of alleged interference by state agencies in a central investigation, a bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Vipul Pancholi issued a notice to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Director General of Police (DGP) Rajeev Kumar, Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Kumar Verma and others on the ED’s pleas alleging obstruction during the search operations conducted last week.

IANS