Kolkata: Bengal BJP president and Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya on Saturday demanded another round of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bengal, the call coming on a day INDIA bloc held a symbolic ‘public impeachment’ of CEC Gyanesh Kumar over SIR and voter deletions.Bhattacharya called the previous SIR exercise that had struck off 90 lakh electors in Bengal in multiple rounds “incomplete” and claimed that thousands of bogus voters could still be on the rolls despite the large-scale deletions carried out during the revision.He cited the recent identification of fake health insurance cards among around 25 lakh beneficiaries to argue that a fresh revision was necessary to identify more ineligible voters.“The SIR conducted in Bengal is incomplete. On behalf of the party, I want to say that there is a need for another SIR in the state. If fake cards of around 25 lakh health insurance beneficiaries have been identified, it is evident that more bogus voters could have been deleted during the first round of SIR,” Bhattacharya said.He also accused Trinamool and the previous state administration of creating obstacles during the exercise, claiming that intimidation and violence had prevented the process from being carried out effectively. Referring to alleged attacks on BDOs, pressure on anganwadi workers and ASHA workers, and the alleged snatching and burning of enumeration forms from BJP functionaries, he said the exercise could have resulted in more deletions had such incidents not occurred.“Had a BDO not been attacked, had the rights of anganwadi workers not been taken away and had they not been forced to commit suicide, had the husband of an ASHA worker not been shot, and had forms not been snatched from BJP functionaries and set on fire, more names could have been excluded. This is why we believe the exercise was incomplete and another round is necessary,” he said.Bhattacharya also took a swipe at opposition parties protesting against the CEC, questioning their criticism of the poll panel chief. He claimed Bengal had witnessed its most peaceful and violence-free assembly election in years under Kumar’s watch.According to an EC affidavit filed in Supreme Court in Sept, the tribunals had received around 38 lakh appeals. While approximately 1.2 lakh have been disposed of, nearly 37 lakh remain pending.
