Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has once again challenged the Election Commission of India (ECI), this time by asking the people of Bengal to be cautious about putting their signatures on any form that the poll panel might require them to sign.
Stopping short of confronting the ECI directly, Banerjee on Thursday warned people that signing such forms could be at the cost of their electoral eligibility. “Don’t fill-up forms without knowing it; your name can be deleted from the voter list if you do so. A great conspiracy is being hatched by the powers that be.”
On Wednesday she had attacked the Commission for acting as “bonded labourers” in the hands of the BJP.
She told people at Jhargram that plans were being hatched to collect the information of the genuine voters before deleting their names from the electoral rolls. The Centre had a secret plan, which was why it had changed the rules. “They want the names in the voter lists to be renewed and during this process they will delete the names, so if anyone comes to collect your information, be careful about providing them, do not submit your name, identity, language, address without knowing the entire thing, and if you do so without checking things for yourself, then your name may get deleted,” she said, adding, “What the ECI is doing is imposing the National Register for Citizens in an indirect manner.”
Earlier on Wednesday she had made it clear that she would not suspend four State Government officials whom the ECI had ordered to be suspended on charges of gross professional misconduct.
Two of the officials are from the West Bengal Civil Services (WBCS) cadre.
She also attacked the Commission for demanding birth certificates from those who were born post 2006. “They are asking the people who were born after 2006 to show their birth certificates. But they are ignoring the fact that in Bengal, 60% of people did not have birth certificate at that time… How they can show birth certificate. They only have school certificates… Do these people who are making these laws have their own birth certificates?” she asked.