NEW DELHI: An important opposition leader in India has announced plans to take legal action against the election commission. This comes after millions of voters were removed from the electoral rolls during a controversial voter cleanup initiative.
The extensive voter registration effort, called the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), was designed to eliminate ineligible voters. However, critics argue that it’s unfairly targeting marginalized and minority communities. This campaign started last year in various states and territories across the country.
Recently, many of these regions held local government elections, with two additional states scheduled to vote later this month.
One of these states is West Bengal, home to around 100 million people and led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress party. The situation in West Bengal has sparked significant backlash.
This state is also a key political battleground where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has yet to gain control.
Legal Action Ahead
Banerjee has accused the Election Commission of acting on behalf of the BJP to remove names of her supporters from the electoral rolls. “We will go to court again to fight against the exclusion of voters’ names,” she declared to her supporters at an election rally on Wednesday.
