Suvendu Adhikari says SIR means 'Remove Infiltrators, Save India', warns Opposition before Kolkata and Howrah polls

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Monday gave the voter-list revision a new slogan. For the BJP, he told a rally at Esplanade in central Kolkata, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls means “Remove Infiltrators, Save India”.

Adhikari spoke after leading the BJP’s “Save Democracy, Remove Anarchy” procession from College Street through the heart of the city. He accused the Opposition parties of trying to create political instability in West Bengal in order to protect corruption, dynastic politics and appeasement.

He then turned to the next contest. The Opposition, he warned, would face a decisive political response in the coming elections to the Kolkata and Howrah municipal corporations.

A march on the day after Ramlila

The procession came a day after Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee told the INDIA bloc rally at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi that the people of Bengal were suffering because of the SIR and that she would not surrender. The BJP has answered the opposition’s “vote theft” campaign with “Save Democracy” marches of its own, and Monday’s walk in Kolkata was the state unit’s turn.

The revision is now a live issue in the civic polls. In the Supreme Court on 9 October, lawyers said nearly 1.70 lakh appeals by voters deleted in Bengal’s SIR were pending from Kolkata and Howrah, and that the municipal elections were likely to be notified in mid-November.

The Trinamool had not responded to the Chief Minister’s remarks by Monday night.