SIR essential for correcting voter rolls, demographic records in Bengal: BJP

Kolkata, Nov 22 (IANS) The ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) by the Election Commission of India (ECI) will result in a decline in population in West Bengal as well as correction of the demographic records in the state as many illegal infiltrators who have managed to get their names enrolled in the voters' list will start escaping following the exercise. 

The observation by the BJP camp on this count came amid the surfacing of an instance during the ongoing SIR process, where the age of the son mentioned in the enumeration form is more than that of his mother.

BJP's Information Technology Cell Chief and the party's central observer in West Bengal, Amit Malviya, and the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, had highlighted an instance where, as per records, while the son’s current age is 76, that of his mother is 65.

Both Malviya and Adhikari had pointed out that in booth No. 264 of Ramnagar village panchayat under the Bangaon (South) assembly segment of North 24 Parganas district, the name of a 76-year-old voter, Abdul Majid Sheikh, cannot be found in the 2002 voter list.

"According to the current voter list (Serial No. 314), his age is 76. That means, during the 2002 SIR, he should have been an adult and should have voted several times by then. His name should have been in the list back then — but it isn’t. Now here comes the astonishing part (although nothing is surprising anymore under Mamata Banerjee’s rule): The woman he has identified as his mother — ‘Yachhimon Sheikh,’ listed at Serial No. 401 of Booth No. 55 in Gosaba Assembly, South 24 Parganas — is shown as 42 years old in the 2002 voter list, which means, 23 years later, in 2025, her current age becomes 65,” Malviya claimed on social media on Saturday afternoon, corroborating a claim made by Adhikari earlier in the day.

Both Malviya and Adhikari had questioned the absurdity of a mother being 11 years younger than her own son. Both of them have also claimed that the three sons of Abdul Majid Sheikh have allegedly submitted SIR forms identifying Yachhimon Sheikh as their grandmother.

According to Malviya, such cases were surfacing everywhere with people posing as each other’s parents, in-laws, sons, and much more, and numerous such instances were coming to light.

“If SIR (Special Intensive Revision) is carried out properly, the population count of West Bengal will come down, and the demographic records will certainly be corrected. If these allegations are proven true, I urge the Election Commission to file an FIR against this individual and ensure exemplary punishment,” Malviya claimed.

--IANS

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