TMC takes SIR row to Supreme Court after BJP victory in Bengal polls: ‘Winning margin on 31 seats less than deletions’

Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Kalyan Banerjee alleged before the Supreme Court on Monday, May 11, that in 31 West Bengal assembly constituencies, victory margins were less than the number of votes deleted.

The Supreme Court bench was hearing a batch of petitions, including the one filed by Mamata Banerjee, related to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state.

According to Live Law, Kalyan Banerjee, who is also a senior advocate, said the winning margin in 31 assembly constituencies was less than the deletions due to SIR adjudication.

He reportedly referred to the election result from the Jangipara constituency, where the BJP's Prasenjit Bag won the election, beating TMC leader Snehasis Chakraborty by 862 votes. He said his client lost by 862 votes, whereas the deletions in the constituency were far higher — over 5000.

"My candidate lost by 862 votes, but 5,550 names were deleted. This Court had indicated that if the vote difference is less than the deletion of names, then this court will look into it," Banerjee was quoted by Bar and Bench as saying.

Banerjee demanded some sort of court intervention in cases where the election results were likely impacted by large-scale voter deletions, which are still in the process of being challenged before appellate tribunals.

The Election Commission opposed the submissions, saying that the remedy was an election petition, and the poll panel can be held accountable for issues related to the SIR and the consequential appeals against the addition or deletion of votes, news agency PTI reported.

What did the Supreme Court say?

The Supreme Court on Monday said former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and others can file fresh applications regarding their claim that the victory margins were less than the deletion of votes during the SIR of electoral rolls in various assembly constituencies.

According to Bar and Bench, the Supreme Court indicated that a separate application would have to be filed to raise issues about the election results.

"Whatever you want to say about results, about deletions etc. this requires an independent IA," Justice Bagchi was quoted as saying.

In the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly elections, the BJP secured 207 seats in the 294-member assembly, while TMC won 80 seats.

The state registered a record voter turnout of above 90 per cent in the polls.

What did the judge say earlier? 'If 10%...'

Justice Bagchi had said during a hearing on April 13 that unless and until there is an "enormous amount of voters excluded", the West Bengal election results cannot be interfered with.

"If 10 percent does not vote and the winning margin is more than 10 percent then...if it's less than 5 percent then we have to apply our mind. Earlier, a candidate was given primacy before the appellate tribunal because a candidate cannot be denied the right to contest. Please don't think the question is not in our mind, what about those who are excluded?" the judge had added, according to Bar and Bench.

Role of appellate tribunals

The Supreme Court had earlier refused to stay the SIR exercise, but had ordered the establishment of appellate tribunals, manned by retired judges, to hear challenges to voter deletions.

Lakhs of voter deletions have been challenged before these appellate tribunals and remained pending even as the Assembly elections were being conducted. Only a minuscule number of people received relief from the tribunals before the polls took place, the Bar and Bench reported.

(With inputs from Bar and Bench)