A BJP delegation, led by Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari, met Governor Dr CV Ananda Bose on Monday, alleging deliberate harassment by electoral officers in collusion with Trinamool Congress and its political advisor firm Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) during the Special Intensive Review (SIR) process. The delegation, comprising BJP MLAs and senior party leaders, demanded immediate action to be taken, including filing FIRs against such officers.
Adhikari also said that the BJP will not allow the West Bengal assembly elections to be held unless the state’s electoral rolls were cleaned thoroughly by the ongoing SIR exercise with only genuine voters on the list.
The letter submitted by the delegation stated, “The Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) and some Booth Level Officers (BLOs) individually or collectively, are deliberately making mistakes or discrepancies, such as errors in the spelling of names or surnames, and issuing notices to harass voters”.
“Despite repeated requests from the Election Commission of India (ECI) to the Chief Secretary (CS) and the Finance Secretary (FS) of the state government, no Data Entry Operators have been appointed for the SIR process… Due to this non-appointment of Data Entry Operators in our state of West Bengal, it is becoming impossible to complete the SIR process correctly and on time. Given their indifference, the question naturally arises whether the CS and FS are deliberately disrupting the entire SIR process.”
Adhikari alleged that in many cases EROs and AEROs have “appointed contractual employees for the SIR process or for issuing notices and conducting hearings, which is completely contrary to the ECI guidelines. As a concrete proof, the ERO and AERO of Basirhat have been suspended for such illegal acts, and the ECI has instructed the concerned DEO to file an FIR against them”.
“We demand that immediate action be taken, including filing FIRs, against all EROs and AEROs who have disregarded the ECl guidelines and committed these acts,” he said.
He further alleged that in complete contradiction to the ECI guidelines it was seen that Trinamool Congress political leaders and goons are present in the hearing centers making political speeches through microphones, issuing criminal threats to the individuals attending the hearings, creating an all-round atmosphere of disturbance and fear.
In many cases, the BJP leader claimed, “where Form 7 for deletion of a particular voter was filed by a voter of the same Assembly constituency, some ERO/AERO even before conducting a hearing filed a criminal complaint with the local police station resulting in the arrest of the complainant”.
“We will not allow the state elections to take place with erroneous electoral rolls. If the poll process is not completed in Bengal by midnight on May 5, President’s Rule will automatically be invoked, and the state would be ruled from the Lok Bhavan,” the leader was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
The delegation requested the Governor to initiate disciplinary proceedings against such electoral officers. Adhikari told the media: “We had mailed seeking an appointment for a meeting with the Chief Secretary on Monday but we were given time on February 6”.
Referring to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s visit to Delhi,
Adhikari said, “India is a democratic country. Everyone has the right to oppose anything mooted by the authorities… what is required is that democracy continues. We cannot sleep in a democracy”. “Whatever happened outside Banga Bhawan in Delhi today is a matter of shame for Bengal”.
Meanwhile, Governor CV Ananda Bose told media persons, “That is the message (that the state government is not cooperating with the LoP) which is given by the Leader of Opposition, who came with a large number of MLAs. They have a complaint, which I will take up with the state government, the Chief Electoral Officer and the Government of India.”