SIR will lead to deletion of names of only Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators: Bengal LoP

Kolkata, Oct 17 (PTI) Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Friday said Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee is "worried" as SIR will delete the names of Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators from the voter list, denting the electoral prospects of her party in the state assembly polls next year.

Adhikari, speaking at a BJP-organised public meeting at Pursura in Hooghly district, said Indian Muslims need not worry about the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls by the Election Commission, as only the names of Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators will be deleted.

"Names of one crore Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators will be deleted from the voter list, and already 19 lakh Aadhaar cards of the illegal entrants have been deactivated. Bonafide Indian citizens, the Muslims who have valid documents, need not worry. You have to show your document only. Rest assured, your rights as citizens will never come under threat," he said.

Adhikari claimed that Bangladeshi Hindus, having come over to this part of the border, "will be granted Indian citizenship and need not worry, as they have been forced to leave their homeland facing religious persecution." He accused the TMC of blocking cameras for two and half hours across vast areas of south Bengal when the voting was in progress in the last Lok Sabha and Assembly polls and assured "such rampant large-scale false voting will become a thing of the past in the next assembly elections." On the recent rape of the private medical college female student at Durgapur and the CM's alleged comments in the wake of the incident, he said, "You shut down everything after the sun sets. You declare you are unable to ensure security of women. Please don't give that slogan 'Bengal wants its own daughter' which you gave to mislead people in earlier election." Adhikari said Banerjee's comment against Bhutan regarding the floods in North Bengal was "undiplomatic".

"For floods everywhere - in south and north Bengal - she keeps blaming everyone but her own regime, which is responsible for the scale of devastation by rampant urbanisation aided and abetted by her own party and administration," he said.

The senior BJP leader said crores had been given by the Centre to the state for flood control measures in south and north Bengal, but as the state "failed" to stop filling up waterbodies, vast riverine belts turned into basins and floods recurred every year in both regions. PTI SUS RG