West Bengal polls: Suvendu Adhikari serves up SIR 'meal' analogy as BJP bets on deletions

KOLKATA: Bengal's leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari on Wednesday used a meal metaphor to describe the scale of SIR deletions. "Breakfast saw 58 lakh names removed, lunch witnessed removal of seven lakh; and during evening tea, 14 lakh more names were gone. Dinner is yet to be served," he said.

Adhikari claimed around 79 lakh "fake" names have been removed from the state's electoral rolls during the SIR, asserting this would help BJP secure more than 177 seats in the assembly elections next month. Addressing a party workers' meeting in East Midnapore, the BJP senior alleged Trinamool had always relied on fraudulent voters to remain in power, and that the ongoing revision process was eliminating such entries - handing BJP an electoral edge.




Adhikari was alluding to 58 lakh names deleted after the enumeration phase of SIR, seven lakh allegedly removed during final publication of rolls on Feb 28, and 14 lakh of the 32 lakh adjudicated voters in the first supplementary rolls published Monday.

The poll body is yet to officially confirm either the total number of adjudicated voters in the supplementary list or the deletion figure. "90 per cent of these fake voters used to cast their votes in favour of Trinamool," he claimed.

Adhikari alleged CM Mamata Banerjee was opposing the revision process and had approached the Supreme Court to halt it, accusing her of trying to protect "illegal Muslim infiltrators from Bangladesh, who have been the TMC's vote bank." He also referred to demographic changes in Bengal, claiming the Hindu population had declined from "85 per cent in the 1951 census to below 65 per cent today."

Expressing confidence ahead of the April 23 and 29 polls, Adhikari recalled the BJP's growth from three seats in 2016 to 77 in the 2021 assembly elections. "This time it will be at least 177; we will see where the upper limit will go on the afternoon of May 4," he said.

He also outlined a booth-level strategy, urging workers to categorise electors as confirmed, opposing or wavering voters, and ensure migrant labourers return in time to vote.

"If they get 99 out of 100 votes in Muslim booths, why shouldn't we get 100 out of 100 in Sanatani booths?" he said.

Framing the election as a fight for a "nationalist and Sanatani govt," Adhikari said a BJP govt under PM Narendra Modi would implement the Ayushman Bharat health scheme, provide Rs 3,000 financial assistance to women and create six lakh merit-based govt jobs in Bengal.