'Gyanesh Kumar pushing NRC through SIR': Abhishek Banerjee mounts fresh attack on Election Commission

Addressing a press conference a day after SIR for 12 states including West Bengal was announced, Abhishek on Tuesday trained his guns at the ECI accusing the poll body of acting as an extended arm of the country's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which runs the Centre and desperately wants to oust the TMC regime in the eastern state.

"Gyanesh Kumar is a man on a mission and this (backdoor NRC through SIR) is his mission. This is exactly why he has been sent as the Chief Election Commissioner. He was earlier with Mr Shah, who is now the Home Minister and Cooperation Minister, and has worked as a Cooperative Secretary," said Abhishek, who is the second most important member of the TMC after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

"After losing in 2021, they are using the decision-making bodies, central agencies, from the back door to control Bengal. Now similarly, they are using SIR to introduce a backdoor NRC," he added.

"Our party’s stand on this has always been clear, that SIR’s intention is not really a revision but an exclusion on how to remove voters from the voter list and take away their rights, and deprive people of their fundamental rights is their only aim," the TMC leader added.

Abhishek has threatened to gherao the ECI office in Delhi with one lakh people if one genuine voter is deleted from the final voter list after the conclusion of the drive.

He has also challenged Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who is in charge of Delhi's administration, to stop the TMC's gherao plan.

"I have said this before and I say this again. If a single genuine voter’s name is removed, one lakh people will gherao the ECI’s office in Delhi. If you have the guts, Amit Shah’s Delhi police should try and stop us," he said.

"Do SIR, but I challenge them that if a single genuine voter is removed, Delhi will witness Bengal’s might. October 2023 was the trailer, but you will see the full cinema in the coming days. Bengal, Gujarat, and MP are not the same," the TMC MP added.

"The way ECI is acting like an agency of BJP, I am warning them, as a parliamentarian, that sooner or later the government will change. BJP and Amit Shah won’t stay but the Constitution will," he said.

Abhishek has claimed even after SIR, his party TMC will return to power in the next year assembly elections while the BJP's tally will tank to below 50.

"Today, I tell them again that we will increase our seats in 2026 even if by one seat, there is no space for losing. And BJP will decrease to 50. If you have the guts, accept the challenge," he said.

Gyanesh Kumar on Monday said the second phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) for electoral rolls will be held across 12 states and UTs, including West Bengal, from Tuesday.

Kumar was quoted as saying by the media, "The voter list of all those states where SIR will be done will be frozen at 12 am tonight."

He further said, "All voters on that list will be given Unique Enumeration Forms by the BLOs. These Enumeration Forms will have all the necessary details from the current voter list."

Though Mamata had initially thundered that she won't allow SIR to be held in the state, later she toned down and said her party won't allow any genuine citizen to be deprived of his/her voting rights.

Speaking to Aaj Tak, Union Home Minister Amit Shah reacted to Mamata's claim that people would come out on streets to protest against SIR and said, "The same was said during the Bihar SIR. What has happened? Everybody filled the forms. The elections will be held in Bihar as well as in West Bengal."