Bengal SIR observer Subrata Gupta appointed adviser to CM Suvendu Adhikari
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Kolkata: Retired IAS officer Subrata Gupta, who served as the Election Commission’s Special Roll Observer during West Bengal’s special intensive revision (SIR) of voter rolls, has been appointed adviser to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, officials said on Saturday.
The appointment came on the day Adhikari was sworn in as Chief Minister after the BJP defeated the Trinamool Congress in the Assembly elections. The BJP won 207 seats in the 294-member House, while the TMC secured 80.
The SIR exercise had become a major political flashpoint ahead of the polls. By early April, around 91 lakh voters had been removed from the rolls, accounting for nearly 11.9% of the electorate before the process began. The TMC accused the Election Commission of arbitrarily deleting large numbers of names and approached the Supreme Court over the matter.
The revision was carried out in West Bengal as well as eight other states and three Union Territories, but West Bengal saw an additional “logical discrepancy” filter used to examine voter applications. The categories included mismatches in parental names and other details, according to the reports.
About 2.4 lakh CAPF personnel were deployed in the state during the elections, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah saying they would remain for 60 days after polling.