Chief election commissioner Sunil Arora on Friday said it was for the Supreme Court to decide whether a National Register for Citizens (NRC) should be prepared in Bengal and ruled out a return to ballots from EVMs.
Asked if the NRC was likely to be implemented in Bengal in the foreseeable future, Arora said: “Let the Supreme Court come out with a verdict. At the moment, it is for Assam. The Supreme Court has not given the verdict. I cannot give a verdict and cannot forecast it.”
Top BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, have been pitching for an Assam-like NRC exercise in Bengal. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee vehemently opposes the idea.
On the return to ballot papers — a key plank for Mamata after the general elections — Arora said: “We are not going back to the era of ballot papers.”