CPI(M) state secretary Mohammad Salim said the BJP leadership’s “enthusiasm to throw out illegal infiltrators in West Bengal has waned” after the draft voter list was released and most Muslim-majority areas in the state were better mapped. File | Photo credit: DEBASISH BHADURI
Congress and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leaders in West Bengal on Friday (Dec 19) hit out at the Bharatiya Janta Party, saying the story of “proliferating illegal infiltrators” developed by the BJP was proved wrong after the Special Intensive Review (SIR) process was made public.
CPI(M) state secretary Mohammad Salim said the BJP leadership’s “enthusiasm to throw out illegal infiltrators in West Bengal has waned” after the draft voter list was released and most Muslim-majority areas in the state were better mapped.
“That’s why they (the BJP government) don’t do a national census because it’s a general census that includes all Indians. That’s why calling Muslims infiltrators or Rohingyas is the BJP’s way of dehumanizing people. This is not a Hindu-Muslim problem. There are many marginalized people in India who are vulnerable and have no documents,” Salim said. He added that many vulnerable people from tribal communities, women, tenants, street dwellers stand a chance of being left out in the SIR process due to lack of specific documents and should be explored.
He raised questions about how people who were not included in the draft electoral roll but are legal citizens of India will be included in the list. He charged that BJP and RSS are not only against Muslims but against all minorities and marginalized including caste minorities and women.
Ghulam Ahmad Mir, an MLA from Jammu and Kashmir, said a rumor spread by the BJP leadership in West Bengal that there were over a million “infiltrators” in the state had been proved wrong. “Out of 58 thousand dropped in the Bengal electoral rolls, 24 are dead. I ask them (BJP), how many ‘infiltrators’ are there in this list?” asked Mr. Mir. He said that while there are some undocumented people in Bengal, most of them are minorities from nearby Bangladesh and all have come under humanitarian aid.
Mr. Mir added that no one is against SIR, rather they are only against the “rushed” process that the Election Commission of India (ECI) used to conduct the SIR process is questionable.
The draft list of voters was published on Tuesday (December 16), where 58,000 cuts were marked in the list. About 24.16 lakh voters were identified as deceased, 32.65 lakh voters as shifted and absent and 1.38 lakh voters were found to have duplicate entries at multiple places.
The final voter list will be published on February 14, 2025.
West Bengal is scheduled to hold a state legislative assembly in mid-2026.
Published – 20 Dec 2025 04:13 IST
