Mamata claims SIR influenced Bengal election results; Supreme Court says file fresh plea

The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) party claimed in the Supreme Court on Monday that voter deletions in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls impacted the results in certain assembly constituencies in the recent West Bengal election. The claim was made during a hearing before a bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymlaya Bagchi.

TMC leader and senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee submitted that the BJP’s winning margin over the TMC in 31 constituencies was less than the number of persons deleted in the SIR adjudication process.

He further said that in many cases, the deletions and the loss margin were almost the same.

Banerjee pointed out that one TMC candidate lost by 862 votes in a constituency where over 5,432 voters were removed from the rolls for adjudication. He claimed that the vote gap between the TMC and the BJP was nearly 32 lakhs, and nearly 35 lakh appeals were pending before the appellate tribunals.

He also referred to an earlier observation made by Justice Bagchi that if the winning margin was less than the number of deleted voters, then the matter may require judicial examination.

EC cites data, says TMC won 5 seats with highest deletions

However, the Election Commission referred to its own data to claim the reverse. It said some constituencies that saw the highest number of voter deletions in the Malda and Murshidabad belt voted in favour of the Trinamool.

It said Sujapur recorded 1.50 lakh deletions followed by Raghunathganj with 1.30 lakh, Samserganj with 1.25 lakh, Ratua with 1.23 lakh and Suti with 1.20 lakh, but all five were won by the Trinamool Congress.

The BJP eventually won 207 of the state’s 294 seats.

File fresh applications regarding claims: Top court

The Supreme Court bench said that former chief minister Mamata Banerjee and others can file fresh applications regarding their claims.

“Whatever you want to say about results...which may have materially affected because of deletions which are under adjudication...that requires an independent Interlocutory Application (IA),” Justice Bagchi said.

Senior Advocate Menaka Guruswamy told the bench that at the present rate, the appellate tribunals will take at least 4 years to dispose of the appeals. The CJI said that the priority will be to ensure that appeals are decided expeditiously.

“We indicated to you...subsequent event: you are at liberty to file an IA. Mr Naidu (the EC lawyer)’s objection will come as a counter. We will look into it and pass the order. On pendency of appeals - report from Hon’ble CJ required...to take stock in what timeline they can be resolved,” Justice Bagchi added.