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New Delhi: The INDIA Alliance has to follow the path shown by the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal regarding the protest against the SIR (Special Intensive Revision). As has been announced earlier by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the Opposition parties will surround the Election Commission office and stage a sit-in protest.
The Opposition has been raising its voice against the SIR of the voters' list. They are protesting and raising slogans in Parliament every day. The TMC has also joined this protest of the opposition INDIA Alliance in the Parliament.
Meanwhile, Mamata had said from the stage on July 21 during the party's annual Martyrs' Day rally that the Election Commission office would be surrounded if the organisation decides to implement the SIR in Bengal. This time, other leaders of the INDIA Alliance have also accepted Mamata's proposal.
On Thursday, at a meeting of the parliamentary party leaders of the INDIA Alliance, TMC MP Derek O'Brien presented Mamata Banerjee's proposal in the presence of Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi. The proposal was accepted by the leaders of the INDIA Alliance.
The MPs of the alliance have decided to join TMC in the 'commission siege' program. The siege program is likely to take place on Wednesday or Thursday next week. On the other hand, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, standing in the Parliament premises yesterday, said, “SIR is Silent Invisible rigging.” Now, TMC has made a poster to surround the commission with this slogan. They claim that other parties in the INDIA Alliance will also use this poster.
Mamata announced that if the names of voters are omitted in Bengal, like in Bihar, then they would wreak havoc. She even threatened to surround the Election Commission office in protest if the SIR takes place in this state.
As per the Election Commission, during the SIR of Bihar's electoral rolls, house-to-house visits by the poll officials in the state unearthed that over 52 lakh voters were not present at their addresses, and another 18 lakh have died. Opposition parties have claimed that the EC exercise will disenfranchise crores of eligible citizens, and the RJD has moved the Supreme Court against the SIR process in Bihar.
