By Arun Srivastava
Reminiscent of L K Advani’s rathyatra of 25 September 1990, seeking to capitalise on the massive protests across north India against the reservation bill, the national BJP leaders will take out a massive rath yatra on March 1, christened as “Parivartan” rathyatra across West Bengal with special focus on the areas dominated by Hindi speaking migrants and backward caste voters.
While a common Bengali is apprehensive of the possibility of repetition of communal clashes which had taken place in 1990 across the country, the BJP leadership, particularly PM and Amit Shah, least bothered of fear people nurse, are getting ready for the launch of yatra which precisely targets to seize at least 6 per cent of the votes, out of 44 percent. which TMC of Mamata Banerjee had polled in 2021 assembly election. Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has even warned that “certain forces” are attempting to incite riots and create unrest for electoral gains. The accusation coming from the CM this time carries immense importance.
Desperate BJP high command has been resorting to all kinds if machinations to swing the voters in BJP favour. The special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls which is underway in the state, aims at disenfranchising lakhs of TMC supporters. Already around 1.38 crore people have been summoned by the EC for the SIR hearings over logical discrepancy. Names of nearly 80 lakh voters are yet to be cleared. Mamata alleged that already 58 lakh names have been deleted in the draft rolls. “The total number is two crore” Mamata asserted. The main target of the B JP leaders of course has been Dalits, poor, Muslims voters, who are supposed to be Mamata’s supporters.
For reaching out to the urban Bengali bhadralok Modi and Shah had even tried to appropriate Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Subhas Bose, B R Ambedkar and Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar. But it did not result. The more they tried to identify with these icons, the more people abhorred them. Their latest move, for winning over the confidence of the people and identify with the cultural ethos of Bengal, they have bowed before Goddess Maa Kali, maintaining distance from their favourite Lord Sri Ram
CEC Gyanesh Kumar has been resorting to questionable directives. Initially the state BJP leaders and ECI had agreed to delete at least 2 crore names, as this will completely wipe out the winning margin of the TMC candidates in many of the 294 assembly constituencies. But since the local state EROs and other staff could not give a shape to their design, Gyanesh deployed BJP and RSS supporters staff from other states to lord over the local staff and implement the desire of the BJP leaders. But this design was exposed by Mamata in the Supreme Court while appearing in person.
After listening to her submission, Apex Court asked the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice to enlist, services of the judicial officers, even of those who have retired. Apex Court order came in the backdrop of its observation that a “serious trust deficit” between state governments and the ECI, on Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls.
Term “logical discrepancies” being used by the ECI to flag, and delete, about 60 lakhs voters has alarmed the court. The SC intervened to ensure that genuine voters are not excluded due to faulty AI-generated errors or rigid, flawed processes. The ECI’s use of the “logical discrepancy” category has been criticized as arbitrary, with the SC finding that these procedures were “very restrictive” and did not account for common naming variations in India. The court directed the ECI to publish these lists to allow for transparency. Rather than accepting the ECI’s plea of exclusive jurisdiction, the SC has ordered the deployment of independent judicial officers (district judges) to oversee the SIR process in West Bengal to ensure fairness, especially when electoral staff were perceived to be under pressure.
But the gigantic task is difficult to be completed by the district judges before February 28, the last date of publication of the final list. The Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court informed the apex court in view of the “enormity of the exercise,” the 250 judges currently assigned to verify 80 lakh logical discrepancies would take 80 days to finish at their current pace.
Really it is really intriguing why the apex court is reluctant to not listen to the opposition argument; give some more time to SIR for a fair and honest voters’ list. Heaven will not fall if the election is held based on the voters list which was used in 2024 Lok Sabha election. This simply reinforces the belief that Gyanesh Kumar has succeeded in his mission to help his political masters. The apex court said the SIR process would continue till the filing of nominations. Similar order was issued in case of Bihar. But what finally emerged lakhs of voters could not be enrolled and Gyanesh managed to have his way.
After receiving report from CJ of Calcutta High Court, the Supreme Court, modified its earlier order and asked the Calcutta High Court to draw officers in the rank of civil judges (civil and junior division having experience not less than 3 years) for the verification of approximately 80 lakh cases of ‘logical discrepancies’ from Jharkhand and Odisha. The fact is even after incorporating this provision, the task would not be completed by February 28. Voters of Bengal will meet the same fate as the voters from Bihar had met. They would be denied of their Constitutional Rights to vote and elect their representative, notwithstanding serving the ulterior design of Gujarati duo to reduce the margin of votes of TMC candidates.
Supreme Court ordering that CEC cannot issue any further direction in this regard may be cheered by liberals and even by TMC leaders, but the fact remains that harm has been inflicted. With reduced number of voters, BJP’s vote percentage will shoot eventually bringing in more seats to it. In all fairness the apex court cannot direct the judicial officers to complete the task within a certain time frame and this would be used by CEC to the advantage of BJP. The court said; we deem it appropriate to invoke our powers under Article 142 of the Constitution and declare that the voters enlisted in such subsequent supplementary lists shall be deemed to have been part of the final list published on 28th February 2026 and shall be treated accordingly”. Is there any certainty that the exercise will finish before the polling day?
This fluid situation will be of much advantage to BJP. Already Amit Shah has decided to camp in Bengal guiding the BJP’s poll strategy for the Assembly elections. Winning Bengal election is the part of the saffron strategy “Mission 2026”, described as “Anga, Banga, Kalinga (Bihar, Bengal, Odisha)”. Shah has based his strategy on the gains of Bihar model. Since the ground level net work and strength of cadres are too weak in Bengal, Modi-Shah combine is entirely dependent on the SIR.
Though the BJP officially has set a target of 200 seats out of the total of 2294 seats in Bengal, the BJP think tank is not sure to add to its previous number of 77. For achieving the target it must ensure that TMC candidates perform poorly in a large number of seats, where the winning margin of TMC candidates ranges from 5 per cent to 9 per cent. The ECI has taken the first step in the direction to increase BJP’s vote share. It has informed the Supreme Court about “grave threats” to its staff and “intimidation” and “obstruction” during electoral exercise. Already central paramilitary forces have been deployed. More will descend just ahead of polling. (IPA Service)
