Panic Hits TMC as SIR Deletions Put Leaders at Risk

Kolkata: Leaders of West Bengal’s ruling party Trinamool Congress are panic stricken as the Election Commission has released figures of voter deletions from the draft SIR roll to be published on December 16. In many prime Assembly constituencies, even in Kolkata, the number of deletions is set to outnumber or run very close to the winning margins of the ruling party’s candidates in the last elections. Political observers say that since the ruling party is usually seen as the beneficiary of votes polled from ghost voters, the proposed deletions, if they appear in the final SIR list, can cause major upsets or at least make the contest a very closely fought affair. In that list are the names of marquee Assembly constituencies which are represented by Trinamool heavyweights like Mamata Banerjee, the party’s Muslim face Firhad Hakim, Education Minister Bratya Basu, Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya and IT Minister Babul Supriyo, apart from long-term MLA Nayana Bandyopadhyay. Voters whose names will disappear from the draft roll are those whose SIR forms fall in the “uncollectible” category, which means their enumeration forms could not be collected because they were absent, dead, could not be traced or were duplicate voters.

Going by the Election Commission’s status report on Friday, 11.5 lakh electors across 25 Assembly segments that may be considered part of the urban sprawl in and around the metropolis will have their names struck off in the draft list. The Chowringhee Assembly constituency leads the pack with the highest number of voter dropouts—74,553, followed by Shyampukur (72,900) and Ballygunge (65,171). Bhowanipore, which happens to be Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s constituency, will see 44,787 voters being left out from the draft list. In the last Assembly elections, in the Chowringhee Assembly constituency, the party’s candidate Nayana Bandyopadhyay won with a margin of 45,344 votes, as compared to the proposed deletion of 74,553 votes. Similarly, Bratya Basu, the Education Minister, won the Dum Dum seat with a margin of 26,731. The proposed deletions will be 33,862. For Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya, the going may become tough in Dum Dum Uttar Assembly constituency since her winning margin of 28,499 is less than the proposed deletion of 33,912. For Firhad Hakim, Mamata Banerjee’s closest aide and the party’s Muslim face, things can become sticky since his winning margin of 68,554 is uncomfortably close to the deletion figure of 63,730. For Mamata Banerjee herself, the going may get tougher this time if she chooses to seek re-election from Bhawanipore, which gave her a winning margin of 58,832. The proposed deletions as per the Election Commission figures is 44,757.

Even worse can be the fates of two other high-profile Ministers—Babul Supriyo and Shashi Panja. Babul Supriyo won the last Assembly elections to the Ballygunge constituency with a margin of 20,228 votes, while the proposed deletions can be as high as 65,171. For Shashi Panja, a doctor turned politician, her winning margin from Shyampukur was 22,520, but the deletion figure has been pegged at 42,303. The number of voter exclusions is consistently high in assembly segments across the length and breadth of the city—63,730 in Kolkata Port, 58,025 in Kasba, 54,184 in Jadavpur, 42,519 in Rashbehari, 41,870 in Maniktala, 38,797 in Metiabruz and 35,309 in Tollygunge. The lowest is 31,320 in Baranagar. Top Trinamool Congress sources told The Sunday Guardian that the top leaders were very worried about these figures. “Each and every local leader has been told to be ready to contest these figures at the hearings which will start after December 16. Efforts are also on to bring those voters back who were not in the city when the BLOs visited their residences. There is no time to lose,” said a leader who handles the organisational matters in the city. For the winning leaders in the BJP, the news of the deletions is welcome since this may make their positions more secure at the hustings next year.