NEW DELHI: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday alleged that the Election Commission has unilaterally deleted 54 lakh names from the draft electoral rolls during the special intensive revision (SIR) in the state by misusing the powers of electoral registration officers (EROs).Addressing a press conference at the state secretariat Nabanna, Banerjee claimed that a majority of those removed from the rolls were “genuine electors” who were not given an opportunity to defend themselves as they were not informed of the grounds for deletion, reported PTI.“The EC, while sitting in Delhi, used AI tools devised by the BJP to delete names. These AI software accounted for the names mismatch in SIR data. They deleted names of women who changed surnames post marriage,” Banerjee alleged.The Trinamool Congress supremo further claimed that “logical discrepancy” was not part of the original SIR verification process and was “included as an afterthought to add to deletions”. She alleged that the “BJP-EC nexus” was planning to remove another one crore names from the final electoral rolls.Banerjee also accused the poll body of restricting the role of booth level agents during the verification exercise. “The EC has not allowed BLA-2s to attend hearings because the BJP couldn’t amass its workers to do the job,” she said.The chief minister’s comments come amid heightened political tensions in the state over the ongoing voter list revision exercise, with the Trinamool Congress repeatedly alleging that the process is being used to target certain sections of voters. The Election Commission has not responded to Banerjee’s allegations so far.
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