Union minister Sukanta Majumdar leads rally, accuses TMC of misleading people over SIR

Kolkata, Jan 21 (PTI) Union minister Sukanta Majumdar on Wednesday charged the ruling Trinamool Congress with misleading people over the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal.

He led a rally in his Lok Sabha constituency Balurghat in the northern part of the state also to protest alleged corruption, atrocities on women and poor law and order situation.

Majumdar, a former West Bengal BJP president, led the 'Paribartan Sankalpa Yatra' from Siliguri crossing to Raiganj railway station, a distance of around two kilometres, in Uttar Dinajpur district.

Addressing the rally, he said that SIR is being held in several states, but in Bengal, the TMC is afraid of the exercise. "About 58 lakh names have been struck out from the rolls in the draft list for West Bengal, while in Uttar Pradesh, two crore names have been deleted," Majumdar said.

He said that the BJP government in UP was not worried about the deletions, but the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC in Bengal was anxious over it.

"It is because they are worried that they will lose if false names are deleted from the electoral rolls. They (TMC) are misleading people over the SIR," he said.

Majumdar asserted that there is no unrest in any other state where SIR is being held.

"No Hindu refugee should be worried about their citizenship in India," the Union Minister said.

"SIR says all Indian citizens, whether Hindu or Muslim, need not worry; they will be able to vote," Majumdar said. "We will not allow West Bengal to become west Bangladesh," the BJP leader said, alleging demographic changes in some districts of the state.

Protests have been held across several districts of West Bengal for the past several days over alleged harassment of people during the hearing part of the SIR exercise in the state.

The participants of the rally raised the slogan of bringing a change in the state in the coming assembly elections, accusing the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC dispensation of "misrule" in Bengal.

The TMC won the assembly elections in three consecutive elections since 2011. The BJP, the principal opposition party in the state, won 77 seats in the 2021 polls.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held two rallies last weekend in north Bengal's Malda and in Singur in south Bengal's Hooghly district, upping the ante over the coming assembly polls in the state. PTI AMR NN