PM tells Bengal MPs to step up outreach on SIR of voters' list

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday, instructed Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members from West Bengal to go for an extensive public relations and public awareness exercise, spreading information on the necessity of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters' list in the eastern state that started from Nov.4.

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The Prime Minister gave these instructions at a meeting with the party MPs from West Bengal in Delhi on Wednesday afternoon, which was attended by the 12 BJP Lok Sabha (LS) members and the two Rajya Sabha (RS) members from West Bengal, party sources said, adding that the interaction lasted for a considerable duration and covered both organisational and electoral issues.

However, the Prime Minister advised the party MPs from the state to refrain from making any projection about the probable number of voters whose names would be finally deleted from the final voters' list after the SIR, confirmed one of the Lok Sabha members present at the meeting.

"Rather, the Prime Minister advised us to focus on making people aware of why SIR is necessary so that only genuine voters are retained in the voters' list after excluding the bogus voters," a party Lok Sabha member said, stressing that the pitch should be on cleansing the electoral roll instead of speculative figures.