Kolkata, May 11 -- The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday told the Supreme Court that deletions carried out during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls had materially affected the outcome in several Assembly constituencies in West Bengal, claiming that in many seats the number of deleted voters was higher than the BJP's margin of victory.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi asked the TMC to file a separate interlocutory application containing detailed constituency-wise figures on the alleged impact of the deletions. Justice Bagchi observed that the issue would require independent consideration by the court.
In an earlier SIR case hearing, Justice Bagchi had remarked that if the winning margin was lower than the number of voters unable to cast ballots, the issue may require judicial scrutiny. "Suppose margin is 2% and 15% of the electorate who are mapped could not vote, then maybe, we are not expressing any opinion, but we would definitely have to apply our minds," he had said.
Senior advocate Kalyan Bandhopadhyay, appearing for the TMC, submitted that in 31 constituencies, the BJP's winning margin was lower than the number of electors whose names had been deleted and kept under adjudication during the SIR process. In one Constituency, he said, the margin of defeat was 862 votes while more than 5432 persons had been removed from the electoral rolls for adjudication.
Bandhopadhyay further claimed that nearly 35 lakh appeals against deletions were pending before the appellate tribunals and said the overall vote gap between the BJP and the TMC was nearly 32 lakh votes.
During the hearing, Bandhopadhyay also informed the court that former High Court Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam had resigned as a member of the appellate tribunal. The matter was later adjourned.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.