Trinamool to hold anti-SIR rally in Kolkata next month

Kolkata, Oct 16 (IANS) Amid indications that the notification for Election Commission of India's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal will be released soon, the Trinamool Congress has decided to go all out against the exercise with a mega rally in Kolkata soon after the current festive season is over with Kali Puja, Diwali and Bhai Photo (Bhai Dhuj).

Sources in the Trinamool Congress said that the proposed mega anti-SIR rally in Kolkata is likely to be conducted in the first week of November. The main speakers during the event will be West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and party general secretary and Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee.

"At the rally, both the Chief Minister and the party's general secretary are expected to present the blueprint on how anti-SIR movements will be carried out in different parts of the state for the next few months. The Chief Minister is also expected to spell out the points of argument of Trinamool Congress against SIR," said a member of the state cabinet who refused to be named.

Trinamool Congress leadership has already started questioning how top state BJP leaders like the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, and Union Minister of State, Santanu Thakur, are predicting the number of voters whose names would be deleted after the SIR is completed, even before the formal notification for the exercise is yet to be released.

Already, the Chief Minister had claimed that she would not tolerate it if the names of voters from a particular community were deleted from the electoral rolls after the SIR.

Several Trinamool Congress leaders, including some elected public representatives and members of the state cabinet, have threatened that "West Bengal will be on the boil if the name of a single genuine voter is deleted from the list".

The Trinamool Congress has been describing SIR as a "ploy" by the BJP and the Union government to "slap NRC" in West Bengal. On the other hand, the BJP has claimed that the Chief Minister was opposing the SIR to ensure that the names of Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators remain in the voters' list.

--IANS

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