Days after its stunning defeat in West Bengal Assembly elections, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday told the Supreme Court that the voter deletions carried out during the Election Commission of India’s SIR exercise had materially affected election results.
Durin SIR hearing, senior TMC leader and lawyer Kalyan Banerjee submitted that the Trinamool Congress had lost by a margin of 862 votes in one constituency where nearly 5,000 appeals seeking inclusion in the voter list remained pending.
He claimed that the margin of BJP’s victory in 31 constituencies was lower than the number of voters deleted in the SIR exercise. In several more constituencies, Banerjee said, the margin of victory and the deletions were almost the same.
In response, the counsel appearing for the Election Commission of India argued that any alleged lapses in the SIR process could be answered by the ECI and that grievances relating to election results would have to be raised through election petitions.
Banerjee, however, submitted that the ECI’s SIR exercise itself would form a ground in such election petitions.
After hearing arguments from both sides, the Supreme Court suggested to the TMC lawyer that it may file separate applications raising grievances regarding the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which the party claims had an impact on the Assembly election results.
During the hearing, the Court also observed that with regard to pending appeals filed by claimants seeking inclusion in voter rolls, it would seek a report from the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court and examine how the issue could be resolved expeditiously.