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Kolkata, Oct 16 (IANS) Amid indications that the Election Commission of India notification for Special Intensive Review (SIR) in West Bengal will soon be issued, the Trinamool Congress has decided to come out against the practice with a mega rally in Kolkata soon after the current festive season ends with Kali Puja, Diwali and Bhai Dhooj (Bhai Dhooj).
Trinamool Congress sources said the proposed mega anti-SIR rally in Kolkata is likely to be held in the first week of November. The key speakers during the program will be West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and party general secretary and Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee.
“At the rally, both the chief minister and the party general secretary are expected to present a blueprint on how the anti-SIR agitation will be carried out in various parts of the state over the next few months. The chief minister is also expected to highlight the points of Trinamool Congress’ argument against SIR,” said a member of the state cabinet, declining to be named.
The Trinamool Congress leadership has already started questioning how top BJP leaders from the state like Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari and Union Minister of State Shantanu Thakur are predicting how many voters’ names will be removed after the completion of the SIR, when a formal notification of the process is yet to be issued.
The Chief Minister has already claimed that after the SIR, she will not tolerate it if the names of voters of a particular community are removed from the voter list.
Several Trinamool Congress leaders, including some elected public representatives and state cabinet members, have threatened that “West Bengal will come to a boil if the name of even a single genuine voter is removed from the list”.
The Trinamool Congress is calling the SIR a “ploy” by the BJP and the central government to “slap NRC” in West Bengal. On the other hand, BJP has claimed that the Chief Minister is opposing the SIR to ensure that the names of Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators remain in the voter list.
–IANS
source/svn