Bankura: The political temperature over SIR soared on Tuesday after Trinamool workers chased and stopped an SUV in Bankura's Khatra in which BJP workers were travelling with thousands of pre-filled Form 7, which is used to register objection to the inclusion of any voter or to remove dead or shifted voters.
As police questioned the two BJP workers, party seniors rushed to the police station. The incident coincided with BJP alleging that election officials were refusing to accept Form 7 across the state.
CM Mamata Banerjee, flashing the photograph of such a prefilled form found in Khatra, alleged: "This is the current situation. This is how the conspiracy to remove names is being conducted."
"In several areas, BLOs, EROs, DMs and SDO offices received bulk lists — up to 10,000 names in some cases — for deletion. This is illegal. They were caught in Khatra. One BLA can object to only 7 names under election rules. How can 9,000–10,000 names be submitted?" she asked.
In Khatra, nearly 3,000 such forms were found in the vehicle. Learning about it, state junior minister Jyotsna Mandi and local TMC netas reached Khatra police station. "The vehicle contains 20 to 21 bundles of filled Form 7. Additionally, there are several loose forms. BJP workers from Taldangra were taking these forms to Khatra with the sole intention of removing legitimate voters' names by any means. Trinamool workers thwarted that conspiracy," Mandi said.
The BJP leadership admitted to transporting the Form 7s by vehicle but claimed that TMC misinterpreted the situation.
Subhash Sarkar, former junior Union minister, said: "Our BLAs who couldn't submit Form 7 to BLOs gathered the forms to submit them to the ERO by vehicle. Trinamool attacked them on the road, beat our workers and snatched the forms."
Sarkar later went to Khatra police station demanding release of the two BJP workers.
Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya cautioned that elections will not be allowed to be held if SIR was not done properly. He demanded that chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar himself visit Bengal to assess the situation and ensure a transparent completion of SIR.
"The Election Commission is a constitutional body. It is the responsibility of the Election Commission to provide the people of Bengal with a pure, error-free voter list. When our BLAs are going to submit Form 7 for the removal of fake or suspicious names from the list, BLOs are initially refusing to accept them, stating they did not receive instructions. When we go to submit them at the upper level, ie, to the ERO, they also say they cannot accept them because they did not receive instructions from above. Who is this ‘above'?" Bhattacharya said.