Just days after vehemently opposing the Centre’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) has launched a massive voter outreach programme, “Banglar Vote Raksha” (Protection to Voters of Bengal), aimed at assisting citizens during the very process she had denounced.

Martyrs’ Day speech sets stage for clash

At the July 21 Martyrs’ Day rally, Banerjee accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of plotting to replicate Bihar’s SIR strategy in Bengal to “influence and manipulate” voter lists. Declaring that she would “never allow an SIR-like exercise” in the state, the Chief Minister even led a street protest on November 6, pledging not to fill out her own enumeration form until every citizen had done so.

TMC launches 5,00

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