The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Election Commission of India and the Maharashtra government to respond to a petition challenging the deletion of voters in the state’s special intensive revision (SIR) and seeking an interim direction to pause the exercise.
These persons are to be allotted fresh flats and have been provided alternative accommodations elsewhere. The SIR in West Bengal was one of the most contentious in recent years, with the deletion of nearly nine million from the electoral roll. The difference in absolute votes the BJP and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) polled was similar to the total SIR deletions. The TMC has maintained that the deletions helped the BJP win West Bengal elections.
“There are 3,500 redevelopment projects in Mumbai and 1,500 projects in Pune. About 3 crore persons have been knocked off the rolls in this manner,” the senior lawyer said, urging the bench to hold the exercise in abeyance so people who had to shift didn’t lose out. The petition said the situation was so serious that the SIR process removed over 40% of voters in Mumbai (around 3.6 million), followed by Pune (2.86 million), Thane (2.85 million) and Nagpur (1.4 million). The BJP, which swept to power in the state for the first time, winning 207 of 294 seats, has rejected this link.
During SIR, they were shown as “not found” at their previous addresses, which has led to their deletion from the rolls.
