Kolkata, January 7 (). Trinamool Congress general secretary and party’s Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday raised questions on the functioning of the Election Commission of India (ECI) regarding the voter list. He asked the Election Commission to clarify the exact number of illegal Bangladeshi or Rohingya infiltrators in the list of 58.20 lakh voters removed from the draft voter list of West Bengal. This list was published on December 16 last year.
“The BJP is unable to make any electoral headway in West Bengal. That is why they are harassing the people of the state through the Election Commission in the name of special intensive vetting. I want to know the exact number of illegal Bangladeshi or Rohingya infiltrators in the voters’ list who have already been excluded,” Banerjee said after meeting media persons at Balurghat in West Bengal’s South Dinajpur district.
Speaking on the occasion, he claimed that a total of 65 people, including booth level officers (BLOs), have died in West Bengal due to the pressure and panic arising from the vetting process since the process began in November last year.
Abhishek Banerjee asked, “Who is responsible for these unfortunate deaths? What is the reason for this anger towards the people of West Bengal?
He also accused BJP Lok Sabha MP from Balurghat and Union Minister of State Sukant Majumdar of not taking responsibility for two migrant workers from the area who were recently arrested and harassed in Maharashtra.
He said, “Politics is for the welfare of the public. Doesn’t Majumdar have any responsibility towards the people who elected him to the Lok Sabha? People want to know his contribution to the development of his constituency. I challenge him to release a report card in this regard.”
He further said that two local migrant workers in Maharashtra were arrested and ill-treated only because they were Bengali speaking.
The Trinamool Congress general secretary said, “Majumdar is also a Bengali speaker. So by this logic he is also a Bangladeshi.”
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