Bengal SIR Battle: TMC's Supreme Court Challenge Over Voter List

Speaking to media persons on Wednesday, four-time Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha MP and senior advocate of the Calcutta High Court Kalyan Banerjee said that the Commission's decision to accept the 2002 voters list as the basis of the current exercise is not acceptable, since following the delimitation exercise which was completed in 2008, there had been a major change in the layout of the Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies have changed.

"Many constituencies that used to exist in 2002, when the last SIR was conducted, ceased to exist after the delimitation. Similarly, after delimitation, some new constituencies were formed that did not exist before. So how could those non-existent Assembly constituencies be the basis of the current revision exercise? That would be our first point of argument during the hearing in the matter at the apex court," Kalyan Banerjee said.

The second point to be raised by Trinamool Congress during the apex court hearing, according to Banerjee, would be how the Commission could delete the names of certain voters in the state or ask them to make fresh applications when they had already voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

In its petition at the apex court, Trinamool Congress's main demand is to seek a stay on the ongoing SIR process.

When asked whether the court could stay a decision of a constitutional body like ECI, Kalyan Banerjee said that at least the apex court could give valuable guidance regarding changes in the procedures of the current revision exercise.

Meanwhile, November 14 had been scheduled as the fresh deadline for completing the process of distribution of enumeration forms in the state. The earlier deadline of November 11 had already expired on Tuesday, with the distribution of enumeration forms yet to be completed for around 15 per cent of voters.

- IANS