TMC's ‘vote chori' label turns INDIA bloc's war cry in fight against SIR
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Kolkata: TMC on Thursday decided to step up its opposition to the proposed special intensive revision of voter rolls that the party believes will lead to large-scale deletion of voters.
Along with its INDIA bloc partners, TMC will agitate at Nirvachan Sadan mid-next week. TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee will convene a virtual meeting of all TMC netas on Aug 8 to chart the road ahead.
Deciding to call it "vote chori" at a meeting attended by 20 MPs, INDIA bloc on Thursday resolved to keep its collective focus on SIR during the remainder part of the monsoon session. After the discussion on the Pahalgam terror attack, it is set to demand one on SIR, a move that puts the functioning of Parliament in the coming weeks under a cloud.
Interestingly, the opposition decided to adopt the TMC's appellation of SIR, calling it "vote chori".
It was felt SIR is too esoteric for the common man to grasp its political significance.
A TMC functionary said: "INDIA parties will walk to the EC in protest and hold a gherao. It was agreed upon, and the date would be next Wednesday or Thursday. One more suggestion was discussed in acknowledgment of what this actually means to people who are in villages and everywhere else.
All parties agreed to start the slogans in regional languages."
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"SIR will also be raised in the dharna every day at Makar Dwar outside Parliament. Three parties were able to raise this issue on record in Parliament on Wednesday. They were Derek O'Brien from TMC, Mallikarjun Kharge from Congress and Tiruchi Siva from DMK. Lok Sabha MPs have also been advised to raise this issue on record in the House," a senior TMC neta said.
Banerjee's Aug 8 meet would finalise TMC's blueprint on two crucial issues. The first issue about organising mass movements against SIR, and second, party insiders said, to work out a strategy to spread TMC's movement over harassment of Bengali-speaking migrants.
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