Daijiworld Media Network – New Delhi
New Delhi, Nov 28: Amid escalating political tensions in West Bengal over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, a Trinamool Congress delegation on Friday met the full bench of the Election Commission, alleging that at least 40 deaths linked to the exercise had taken place in the state. The party accused Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of having “blood on his hands.”
A 10-member TMC team, led by Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien, met the EC during the ongoing SIR process being conducted across 12 states and Union Territories. The delegation included MPs Mahua Moitra, Satabdi Roy, Kalyan Banerjee, Pratima Mondal, Sajda Ahmed, Dola Sen, Mamata Thakur, Saket Gokhale, and Prakash Chik Barik.
Speaking after the meeting, O’Brien said the party raised five key questions but received “no answers” from the CEC.
“We began by stating that the CEC has blood on his hands. We placed five questions before him. After we spoke for 40 minutes, the CEC spoke uninterrupted for an hour, yet not one of our questions was answered,” he told reporters.
Mahua Moitra said the delegation handed over a list of 40 alleged SIR-related deaths to the poll panel, which the commission dismissed as “mere allegations.”
While reiterating that the TMC is not against the SIR process itself, O’Brien criticised the manner of its implementation, calling it “completely unplanned and heartless.”
TMC MP Mamata Thakur questioned why states like Mizoram, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland were excluded from the process if “infiltration” was the concern.
“If this voter list is wrong, were previous elections also wrong? If this list isn’t correct, then the previous lists aren’t correct either,” she asked.
She also raised concerns over the deaths of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) in Bengal, alleging that the EC was “not accepting” these deaths as consequences of the SIR workload.
Earlier, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate claimed that 26 BLOs had died in 20 days, calling it “murder in broad daylight.” She cited the suicide of Gonda BLO Vipin Yadav, whose family alleged he was under pressure to remove the names of backward-class members from voter rolls.
The EC has yet to officially respond to the fresh allegations.