Kolkata, Nov 15 (PTI) West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose on Saturday defended the SIR of electoral rolls as essential to "clean up the election process", drawing a counterattack from Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee, who accused him of "sheltering BJP criminals" inside Raj Bhavan and "arming them with bombs and guns".

Bose said the process was designed to remove discrepancies and restore public confidence in the electoral system and that the Bihar elections demonstrated broad public acceptance of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) mechanism.

"If people are confused, we should convince them that SIR is a new process which is required to clean up the election process and to ensure that free and fair elections take place," Bose told reporters here.

"Bihar has proved it. I am sure

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