Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamul Congress national general secretary, urged party workers to ensure that the BJP becomes politically insignificant in 80,000 polling booths.
He was addressing the gathering at the sit-in demonstration at Esplanade this evening. He requested party’s chairperson Mamata Banerjee to withdraw the sit in after the Supreme Court today admitted the demands raised by the party before it.
He also asked the CM to withdraw her protest as the CEC, Gyanesh Kumar has left the city.
The sit in demonstration had entered the 5th day today. Miss Banerjee had called the dharna to protest against the highhandedness of the Election Commission of India in deleting the names of genuine voters in the name of SIR.
Mr Banerjee said the Supreme Court has passed an order where an appellate tribunal comprising the retired Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court and other retired judges will be set up to hear the appeals where names of the voters have either been deleted or sent for adjudication.
Mr Banerjee alleged that “the Election Commission of India is in league with the BJP had deliberately tried to defer the election by not completing the SIR. The judicial officers were given instructions unofficially. Their tricks have been exposed and the Supreme Court has accepted the demands raised by Trinamul Congress.”
The ECI could not explain before the Supreme Court the reason for deleting the names of the voters.
He appealed to Miss Banerjee to look after her health. “We are here. I will personally go to the Assembly constituencies along with party workers and leaders, wherever you instruct us,” he pleaded.
He said CEC Mr Gyanesh Kumar could not answer the questions raised by the city journalists regarding deletion of voters. “The party workers will help people to fill in forms whose names have been deleted, irrespective of their political colour. The movement is to ensure that the genuine voters are not dropped from the electoral roll.”
“We are fighting on the streets, in Parliament and inside the courts. Some judicial officials are deliberately trying to create obstacles to delay the disposal of cases to postpone the polls. The ECI under Gyanesh Kumar is trying to stretch the process. Ideally it should take 15 days. But they are trying to stretch it to 3-4 months. SC has stated that Bengal’s case will be considered as special. It has been said that names of voters can be enrolled on the electors’ list even a day prior to the polls,” said the TMC leader.
“This is a victory for Bengal. CM Mamata Banerjee showed the path on which TMC walked. We had the blessings of 10 crore people of Bengal. All our demands have been recognised by the SC. When we highlighted the issue of mapped voters, SC assured that even after the polls are announced, if a problem arises even a day before the polls, the SC will look into the matter to make sure that no legitimate voter of the country suffers,” said Abhishek at the Dharna Mancha.
He urged the party workers to work seriously for the next two months. “There is no place for complacency. We will have to work hard and defect the BJP and make them politically insignificant.’’