Mamata Banerjee on Thursday instructed officials involved in electoral roll revision to ensure those eligible were not excluded from the voter list because of religion before alerting them to an alleged conspiracy to rob people from a “particular religion” of their right to vote.

“Revision of electoral rolls has started. I request all involved in the process to enrol all eligible voters. Please don’t exclude any name just because they belong to a particular religion. A conspiracy is on here, especially in bordering areas (with Bangladesh). There are many states where 30 per cent people have been excluded from electoral rolls. So, we have to be careful,” Mamata said during her administrative review meeting in Nadia’s Ranaghat.

Mamata asked her officials to open a separate window at Duare Sarkar camps where the people can enter their names on electoral rolls.

Though Mamata did not name any religion or state, Trinamul insiders said she tried to highlight allegations of eligible voters getting dropped from voter lists after revision in places like Uttar Pradesh. Instances of migrant workers getting left out because officials tasked with roll revision did not find them at the given address have been reported in the past.

Bengal has a significant minority population in Murshidabad, Malda, North Dinajpur, Nadia and North 24-Parganas.

All share borders with Bangladesh, and many from these districts are migrant workers.

Covid cases

Bengal on Thursday reported 12 Covid-19 infections, 48 recoveries and no death.

The state has currently 291 active patients — 285 in home isolation and six at hospitals.

The Telegraph