Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Sunday launched a sharp attack on the Election Commission and the West Bengal government, alleging that their “massive” and “miserable” failure in the Special Intensified Review (SIR) process has made the common voter the “worst victim”.
Chowdhury is contesting from Berhampur Assembly constituency for the West Bengal Assembly elections under the Congress ticket.
The Congress leader said that holding free and fair elections is not possible without accurate and transparent electoral lists, citing constitutional provisions that guarantee universal voting rights for adults.
“The issue is that free and fair elections depend on free and fair electoral rolls. Under Article 326, every Indian citizen has the right to exercise his adult franchise without any wrongdoing by these voters. This is due to the colossal and abject failure of the Election Commission as well as the West Bengal government, whereby these ordinary voters have turned into the worst victim of this kind of practice, which is unprecedented in our state earlier,” he said.
He also stressed that the integrity of the electoral process is at risk due to irregularities in preparing voter lists.
He added: “Without free and fair electoral lists, free and fair elections cannot be held.”
Chaudhry also suggested postponing the polls until the transparent review of electoral lists was completed, and urged constitutional authorities to intervene.
“My suggestion was to the Chief Minister of West Bengal to suggest or urge the Election Commission, or even if she wants, the Supreme Court to postpone the elections until free and fair electoral lists are prepared,” he said.
The remarks come amid ongoing political tensions in West Bengal over the electoral roll revision process and allegations raised by multiple parties over discrepancies in voter lists ahead of the Assembly elections.
West Bengal is scheduled to hold two phases of assembly elections on April 23 and 29, with the results to be announced on May 4.
The upcoming elections come on the heels of the 2021 battle, in which the Transitional Military Council won 213 seats. However, the BJP’s growth from a minor player to 77 seats in the last session has set the stage for the current high-stakes standoff.
