Will move Supreme Court, plead for people: Mamata Banerjee on SIR 'harassment'

Kolkata: In a scathing attack on BJP and Election Commission of India over deletion of electors' names and alleged injustice to citizens and harassment of the elderly voters during SIR hearings in the state, chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said her party, Trinamool Congress, will move Supreme Court to help people and if necessary she will plead as a citizen for the people and not as a lawyer.

"We will take legal steps. We will move court soon. I will plead in the Supreme Court for people, not as an advocate but as a citizen and show what is happening at the grassroots," Banerjee said.

"Artificial Intelligence has been used for deletions and ECI is running through WhatsApp. If people's rights are getting vanished from the electoral lists, ECI will also vanish," Banerjee said as she called it a "fight for survival" for the people.


As per the draft list published by ECI, 58 lakh absent, shifted, dead and duplicate (ASDD) voters' names have been deleted from Bengal's electoral rolls.

"The elderly are going to the hearing centres with oxygen cylinders, pregnant women are being called... you are torturing people. If your 85-year-old mother is taken to a hearing centre, would you like it?" Banerjee asked. "BJP is cutting the names of voters in the name of SIR through ECI," she alleged.

"A woman often changes her surname after marriage. So many names have been struck off the voter list due to this reason. Addresses change after marriage and their names are being deleted. Deletion has taken place for changes from English to Bengali in surnames, spelling changes. Now district magistrates' certificates, SC and OBC certificates are not accepted."