Kolkata, June 27 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s negative observations on the Election Commission of India (ECI)’s new electoral roll revision guidelines are a reflection of the fear that her dedicated vote bank of illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators might be weeded out, BJP leaders have claimed.

On Thursday, the Chief Minister claimed that although the ECI’s fresh guidelines were issued before the Bihar Assembly elections this year, in reality, these regulations mainly targeted West Bengal, which is going to the polls next year.

She also expressed apprehension that these new norms might be another step towards implementing the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Reacting to the Chief Minister’s observation, Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari alleged on Friday that the Chief Minister had realised that the large number of illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators, including those from Rohingya background, who had been her dedicated vote bank for so long will now be weeded out and hence she was attacking the commission.

“We welcome the ECI guidelines. We want EPIC cards to be linked to Aadhaar cards. We want biometrics. The Chief Minister is suffering from fear psychosis since many in her dedicated vote bank will now be weeded out because of the ECI’s initiatives,” the LoP said.

Recently, a man named Newton Das from Kakdwip sub-division in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal was identified by the commission as being listed in the voters’ lists of both India and Bangladesh. Thereafter his name was deleted from the voter’s list in India.

BJP’s Information Technology Cell chief and the party’s central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya, too, ridiculed the Chief Minister’s reported fear over the ECI’s roll revision guidelines.

According to him, the Chief Minister’s charges that the ECI’s guidelines were the first step towards implementation of NRC were “shocking and irresponsible” since such exercises by the commission were lawful and routine ones to weed out illegal immigrants who were included in Bengal’s electoral rolls by the ruling Trinamool and CPI(M) before that.

“Why is Mamata Banerjee rattled? Is she worried that the fake vote bank she has built over the years — through unchecked infiltration and appeasement — is finally under scrutiny?” he claimed.

“Ensuring clean and accurate voter rolls is not NRC. It is electoral integrity. Only those who thrive on illegal votes fear the cleansing of the system,” Malviya said in a statement.

–IANS

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