BJP launches its first trade union at Kolkata airport; Samik Bhattacharya seeks fresh SIR in Bengal

The BJP launched its first trade union on Saturday, for contractual workers at Kolkata's Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, and the party's state president, Samik Bhattacharya, used the occasion to demand a fresh Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bengal's electoral rolls, PTI reported.

"It is a historic day as the first trade union of the BJP is officially being started from here," said Sunil Bansal, the party's national general secretary, according to PTI. The party plans to set up unions in other sectors too.

A union with limits

Bhattacharya told the workers they could press legitimate demands but must not disrupt operations at the airport, and criticised what he called militant trade unionism, PTI reported. Bengal's politics has long been shaped by party-linked unions; the Left and the Trinamool Congress have both run large labour wings, while the BJP has until now worked through the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, which is linked to the RSS but is formally separate from the party.

The new union did not say how many members it has.

Fresh SIR demand

At the same event, Bhattacharya said the SIR carried out in West Bengal was "incomplete", and that more names would have been removed from the rolls had officials and BJP workers not been intimidated, PTI reported. PTI puts the number of names deleted in Bengal at about 91 lakh. He also claimed that more than 20 lakh fake Swasthya Sathi health cards had been found, and said Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar "should be given no less than the Padma Bhushan". These are his claims; the Election Commission has not responded to them.

The demand runs in the opposite direction to the campaign by the Opposition. On Sunday, INDIA bloc parties, including former chief minister Mamata Banerjee's faction of the Trinamool Congress, are holding a rally at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan against the SIR and to demand the CEC's resignation, accusing the Commission of deleting genuine voters. The bloc staged a mock "public impeachment" of Kumar in Delhi on Saturday.

In Bengal, a special observer said this week that he had never been told of 16 lakh appeals filed against voters who had been cleared in the revision.

What they are saying

No response from opposition parties to Bhattacharya's remarks had been reported by Sunday morning. Mamata Banerjee, who arrived in Delhi for the rally, met Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party, on Saturday, and said the party had extended its support for Sunday's programme, ANI reported.

What happens next

The Election Commission decides whether and when to hold any further revision. The INDIA bloc rally is due to begin around noon on Sunday, with Delhi Police traffic restrictions in place from 10 am to 5 pm, according to India TV and Business Standard.