New Delhi: The Election Commission’s special intensive revision of the electoral roll is a “sinister move” to bring the National Register of Citizens (NRC) through the backdoor, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O’Brien claimed on Saturday and compared it to ‘ancestor passes’ in Nazi Germany.
At a press conference here, he said the INDIA bloc parties were united on the issue and would take action soon.
O’Brien also questioned the timing of the move, announced months ahead of Assembly elections in Bihar and set to be carried out in West Bengal before next year’s polls. It is the BJP’s “desperate attempt” to win in West Bengal, he claimed.
The Trinamool Congress’ Rajya Sabha floor leader said, “It is a sinister move to bring NRC through the backdoor.”
“In 1935, under the Nazis (in Germany), you were supposed to be given an ancestor pass… Is this the new version of that Nazi ancestor pass?” he posed.
“Why is this exercise being suddenly done right now? We have evidence as to why it is being done now. It is because the latest internal survey of the BJP for Bengal shows 46-49 seats for the party in the state’s assembly polls (early next year). In their desperation to attempt to change things you do such things,” he claimed.
The Election Commission last Monday issued instructions to carry out a Special Intensive Revision in Bihar to weed out ineligible names and ensure all eligible citizens are included in the electoral roll, allowing them to exercise their franchise in the polls slated later this year.
A similar review of electoral rolls will be done by the end of this year in five states that are going to polls in 2026, which includes West Bengal.
Trinamool’s Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose claimed West Bengal was the “real target” of the exercise. “On June 26, the ECI announced that Special Intensive Revision will be conducted for Bihar Assembly polls, but the real target is Bengal.”
Her party colleague and another MP in the Upper House of Parliament, Saket Gokhale, expressed similar views.
“The Modi government is taking away your right to vote and bringing in the NRC using the Election Commission. The purpose of this new exercise is to manipulate Bengal elections for the BJP and then replicate this model all over India,” he alleged.
“The ECI must be forced to roll back and scrap this dangerous and sinister programme which will be used for deleting voters and even snatching their citizenship,” Gokhale said.
O’Brien asserted the INDIA bloc parties will take up the issue both inside and outside Parliament. “We are all on the same page on this. We will not wait for Parliament to start. This cannot wait,” he said.
“Even though Parliament is not in session, there is still good coordination among the INDIA bloc parties,” he said.
Targeting the poll panel, he said, “The Election Commission of India is a constitutional body. We respect that. It has to report to the Constitution of India… and we say this with due respect. It should not turn into a branch office of the BJP.”
At the same time, he underlined that the Trinamool Congress has the highest regard for the Election Commission as a constitutional body.
At the press conference, he also raised the duplicate EPIC card issue and questioned if the EC had resolved it.
The Election Commission in a statement on Saturday said the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has already started in Bihar to verify the eligibility of each elector with full participation of all political parties.
“The Constitution of India is supreme. All citizens, political parties and the Election Commission of India follow the Constitution,” it said.
