Kolkata: Alleging massive irregularities during digitisation of enumeration forms in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in election-bound West Bengal, a delegation of the Bharatiya Janata Party met the chief electoral officer (CEO) on Monday and demanded an audit of 1.25 crore entries made between November 26 and 28.
“The number of entries jumped from 5.50 crore to 7.75 crore in just three days which is abnormal and statistically impossible. Around 1.25 crore names were added between November 26 and 28. We have demanded an audit of these entries by a special observer and the technical team of the Election Commission of India,” leader of Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, told reporters.
A delegation of BJP legislators led by Adhikari met Manoj Kumar Agarwal, the state’s CEO, in Kolkata on Monday afternoon.
The BJP submitted a memorandum and raised a series of demands, including the removal of some IAS officers posted as DEOs, exclusion of EROs who are not of SDO ranks, and deletion of names of what he described as “Bangladeshi Muslims” from electoral rolls.
There was no response from the CEO till around 6 pm on Monday.
“A bad workman blames his tools. While on one hand he is saying the SIR is erroneous, on the other hand he is saying that more than 1 core names of fake and dead voters would be deleted after the SIR. If the SIR is erroneous, it should be stopped immediately,” Jay Prakasj Majumdar, TMC state vice president and spokesperson told the media.
Meanwhile, political tension shot up outside the CEO’s office in central Kolkata after the BLO Adhikar Raksha Committee, an organisation of booth level officers (BLOs) and other government officials, escalated their protests over workload on BLOs. A few BLOs have died allegedly after being unable to handle the pressure. The organisation has been staging protests near the CEO’s office since last week demanding compensation.
The protests took place when the BJP delegation went to meet the CEO. While some BLOs shouted “Go Back” slogans against Adhikari, the BJP legislator was seen raising “Chor Chor” slogans.
“BLOs are dying. We are demanding compensation for the victims. The ECI has extended the deadline by a week, but that’s not enough. The BJP has come to stage a drama here after so many deaths,” said Sarmistha Das, one of the protestors.
This comes days after the Election Commission of India (ECI) directed the CEO to shift the poll panel’s office in Kolkata to a secured location days after a “serious security breach”, in which a section of BLOs gheraoed the CEO and his team of officers. The poll panel had also directed the director general of West Bengal police and the Kolkata Police commissioner to ensure security of CEO’s office in Kolkata and that no political parties threaten booth level workers.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury held a rally in Kolkata with a section of the Matuas, a community whose members came in large numbers from Bangladesh as refugees after 1947 and 1971. Included in the Scheduled Caste (SC) category, Matuas influence election results in around 74 of Bengal’s 294 assembly seats, according to surveys done by TMC and BJP.
“The SIR has put a big question mark on the future of this community. Neither the BJP-led centre nor the TMC government in the state have done enough to ensure their rights,” Chowdhury told reporters.
