Mumbai, April 23 (IANS) Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Thursday said that the reason for high voter turnout in the Assembly election in Tamil Nadu and the first phase of the polls in West Bengal, is the conduct of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls by the Election Commission of India.

Appreciating the polling percentage in both the states, the Union Minister said, “Going by the statistics, there has been unprecedented voting in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.”

Goyal, who is also BJP’s election in-charge for Tamil Nadu, said, “Till 1:30 pm, Tamil Nadu has recorded 15 to 20 per cent increase in voting during this Assembly election as compared to the last time. I was given a responsibility in Tamil Nadu and looking at the turnout today, I am content with the result.”

Attributing the increase in voter turnout to the SIR process, he said, “Though we have experienced that the turnout is usually less in Assembly polls but this polling percentage reflects the deletion of fake and dead voters through SIR and also the improvement that has been brought in the electoral list through technology.”

Emphasising that the reason is particularly significant in West Bengal, he said, “Especially in Bengal the bogus voters have been removed through the impartial implementation of an honest process, who were not even Indian citizens.”

“This will influence the citizens to raise their voice. The value of their votes will be reflected in the polls this time,” he added.

Reiterating BJP’s poll promise in Bengal to remove illegal infiltrators, he underlined that so far, the fake voters and illegal infiltrators have been removed from the voter list and going forward they will be removed from the country as well. “We have gone into the polls with this promise,” he mentioned.

Exhibiting confidence, he said that the NDA will make a clean sweep in both West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

Notably, West Bengal’s polling percentage recorded till 5 p.m. on Thursday was 89.93, the record percentage in the last 15 years in the state since 2011, the year which marked the end of the previous 34-year Left Front government and the beginning of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government in the state.

Meanwhile in Tamil Nadu, the voting percentage stood at 82.24 per cent till 5 p.m., better than 74 per cent recorded in the 2021 elections.

–IANS

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