BJP using SIR, ECI as ‘double-edged weapon’ to deny voting rights: TMC

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC), on Friday, accused the BJP of using the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and Election Commission of India (ECI) as a “double-edged” weapon to snatch away voting rights of the people.

TMC Rajya Sabha MP Ritabrata Banerjee said: “SIR and ECI have become BJP’s tools for silent rigging. SIR and the ECI are being used as a double-edged weapon by the BJP to snatch away voting rights.”

He added: “The attempt to carry out identity-based verification and then NRC has already been exposed. Like our party, national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said, it is “Silent Invisible Rigging” because the BJP can’t come to power otherwise.”

Incidentally, the TMC MPs staged a protest outside the Parliament on Friday on the issue. The ruling party in Bengal also said that SIR is a calculated tool of exclusion and oppression, a dangerous legislative backdoor to push the NRC agenda into Bengal, masked as bureaucratic reform. “The fight is no longer just about politics, it’s about the soul of our Constitution,” TMC stated.

“Today, our MPs stood outside Parliament in protest, exposing this government’s deceit. The people of Bengal will not accept the NRC in disguise...” TMC wrote on X.

Both TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee have strongly condemned the move by the ECI.

“If BJP thinks that their political failures can be avenged by unleashing violence on the people, they’re delusional. Bengal humbled them in 2021. Crushed them in 2024. And in 2026, we’ll make sure the defeat stings so hard, they’ll think twice before messing with Bengal again,” Abhishek had recently stated.