Mamata Banerjee slams ECI’s SIR drive as ‘hidden NRC plot’, vows to block NRC in Bengal

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has called the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls "a hidden conspiracy to bring out NRC" and said she will not allow NRC in Bengal.

She challenged the Election Commission of India (ECI) by claiming that no action would be taken against the Bengal officers who were suspended by the ECI on Tuesday and no FIRs would be lodged against them. "Two officers were served suspension notices yesterday by the ECI. We have been asked to lodge FIRs against these officers. We will not lodge any FIR. They (ECI) are intimidating the officers and police. We will protect our Bengal officers. Election is not near that they are suspending our officers," she said.

On Tuesday, ECI had suspended four officials and directed Chief Secretary Manoj Pant to lodge FIRs against two Electoral Registration Officers and two Assistant Electoral Registration Officers for committing "grave lapses" and "failing to perform their duties", violating the policy of data security while sharing their login credentials of the Electoral Roll database to unauthorised persons. A casual worker was also suspended.


She questioned the legal basis on which these officials were suspended. "They want everyone to enrol their names in a new way. Forget your party, you (people of Bengal) will have to save your address and identity," Banerjee said. She even called ECI as "BJP's bonded labour" who were working at the behest of Home Minister Amit Shah. "They are asking for the birth certificates of people's parents, where will they get those from? Amit Shah, do you have your parents' birth certificates? Then, talk about removing people's names from the voters' list," she said.

Banerjee said "not a single name should be deleted from the voters' list."