Abhishek walks 3 voters ‘marked dead’ during SIR at Baruipur rally

Baruipur: "I will make three ghosts walk," said Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee as he ushered in three people on stage — two men from Metiabruz and a woman from Kakdwip — who he said had been marked dead in course of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bengal's voter rolls. Abhishek's rally in Baruipur on Friday was a flagging off of Trinamool Congress's poll campaign for the 2026 assembly election, and the party's Lok Sabha leader made it clear that Election Commission's SIR would be front-and-centre of the party's poll pitch.Addressing the crowd, Abhishek said, "The day before yesterday, we visited EC's office in Delhi. I asked (chief election commissioner) Gyanesh Kumar to publish the list of Bangladeshis whose names have been deleted. He couldn't do it. Instead, he raised his finger at me. I told him, you (CEC) are nominated, we are elected. Who are you showing aggression to?""They thought Trinamool would go on the backfoot if they showed slight aggression. But we have shown what it is to be a Bengali. One day Abhishek Banerjee went (to meet the CEC), Mamata Banerjee will go too. Who will save you then?" Abhishek added, drawing battle lines.Introducing the three people marked "dead", Abhishek said, "You can see there are these two gentlemen and a woman. Can you see Monirul Islam Molla, Harikrishna Giri and Maya Das? These gentlemen belong from the Metiabruz assembly constituency and the woman from Kakdwip. All these people have been declared dead by EC. In this (South 24 Parganas) district, 24 people who are alive have been shown dead by EC."He then went on to slam BJP and alleged: "In the name of logical discrepancies, 1.3 crore people were sent notices to attend SIR hearings. BJP can send (legal) notices to me and Trinamool workers. But why are notices being sent to common people? In 2016, they (BJP) made people stand in line due to demonetisation. Ten years later, they are making them stand in line for SIR.""You need to stand in line one more time, to drive those who have unmapped you out of the map of Bengal," Abhishek told the crowd.Hitting out at BJP's Hindutva plank, Abhishek said, "Babus of BJP organised a Gita recital at Kolkata's Brigade Parade ground last month. They can't even recite one shloka of the Gita properly. A poor person was selling chicken patties. He was beaten up for that. This at an event where Gita was being recited. When the accused got bail after being arrested, BJP netas garlanded them. This is BJP's Hindutva."He said, "Sukanta Mazumdar is Balurghat MP. Two people, who were jailed for seven months in Maharashtra for speaking Bengali, came to me a few days ago. One hailed from Tapan and the other from Kumarganj, both in Balurghat Lok Sabha constituency. One of them was Asit Sarkar and the other Gautam Barman. The latter is a booth president of BJP.""They said Bhiwandi police arrested them for speaking Bengali. He (Barman) said that despite his wife requesting Sukanta Mazumdar to help, there was no assistance. Balurghat's MP is BJP's. Maharashtra govt is run by BJP. Couldn't you (Sukanta Mazumdar) have helped? It is Trinamool which legally fought for a BJP booth president and brought him back home," he added.He further said, "We need to ensure BJP is reduced to zero. They have tortured and harassed Bengalis."Making it clear that Bhangor will remain firmly in the party's focus, Abhishek said, "In 2021, we won 214 seats. We will have to win at least one more seat this time. You need to promise me that one seat will come from South 24 Parganas. This time, we need to win Bhangar as well to make it 31 out of 31 seats in this district. To achieve this, we will have to work tirelessly. I am ready to go to any booth. We will have to democratically make sure that BJP doesn't get a chance in any booth."EC seeks report from South 24 Parganas DMEC on Friday sought a report from the South 24 Parganas district magistrate (DM) on allegations of living people being marked dead. "For a work of this magnitude, there can be genuine errors (during SIR enumeration). But if it is found these were done deliberately, the booth-level officer (BLO) would be made accountable and will face action," an official said.The official added that the EC was examining 10-15 such cases across the state but was unaware that there were so many such claims in South 24 Parganas alone.