'Murder of democracy': Mamata Banerjee alleges voter roll purge in West Bengal

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday alleged that "certain communities have been specifically targeted" in the special intensive revision of electoral rolls and the names of lakhs of members from such communities "have been removed".

She said the first supplementary list and its hard copies had not been made available to stakeholders. "We have not received the first supplementary list yet. It's not available in the public domain. This is nothing short of murdering democracy. It is truly unfortunate," Banerjee told reporters at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Airport in Kolkata. The second supplementary list, adjudicated by 705 judicial officers, was scheduled to be released on Friday.

The Trinamool leader said the first list should be made available immediately. "They should reveal whose names have been retained and whose names got removed. For those whose names have been wrongfully deleted, appellate tribunals should be set up in every district to help the voters get included on the voters' list," she said, adding, "We will provide free legal assistance." In several families, only one member's name remains on the voters' list while those of others have been deleted, she claimed. "Do they (BJP) want to snatch away people's voting rights and then hold an election," Banerjee asked. People's democratic rights should not be snatched, the CM said, alleging that the Election Commission and the BJP "want to wipe out people's rights and the democracy of this country".


On concerns about fuel availability, she said: "Petrol is already available here and LPG, too. I don't want the LPG produced in Haldia to go outside Bengal. People need to cook first." On the Centre's decision to slash excise duty on petrol and diesel, Banerjee: "Let the prices of diesel and petrol come down first. Their prices were already inflated."