Visit Bengal personally: Bengal BJP to CEC

The Bengal BJP has raised serious concern over the alleged “hijack” of BLOs by the TMC so as to vitiate the revision of voters’ lists and appealed to Gyanesh Kumar, the Chief Election Commissioner of India, to personally visit Bengal with the full bench of the Election Commission of India to find things for himself.

This, while the Trinamool Congress, Congress and the Left have jointly criticised the ECI for realising late the absurdity of completing the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in two months before ordering extension of the dates of submission of enumeration forms by a week or so.

Alleging that the TMC cadres were “threatening, hijacking and dominating” the booth level officers of Bengal into capitulation so as to vitiate the SIR process, State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya has said that Kumar “should personally visit Bengal with his full team... If he is thinking that he will be able to correctly monitor the entire situation of Bengal through the satellite system sitting in Delhi. Then it is not going to happen because he needs to understand the real situation of Bengal, which is different from other States.”

He alleged that the BLOs of Bengal, particularly those in the bordering States of Malda and Murshidabad, had literally been hijacked by the TMC goons who were dictating the regarding how the enumeration forms were to be filled.

“These are after all, trifle government servants who can be easily threatened, dominated and forced into submission,” he alleged, saying the situation was that fake names and false information were being retained or uploaded.

“The safety and security of the BLOs are a prime responsibility of the Election Commission. This is EC’s jurisdiction, that is, of the Chief Election Commissioner, which is why he should do some on-ground monitoring of the situation. He should come to Bengal instead of sending his officers.”

The comparatively sensetive border districts account for about 140 Assembly seats, while Murshidabad and Malda jointly have about 35 seats. Presently, out of 5 parliamentary constituencies in the two districts, three are with the TMC and two with Congress and BJP, respectively.

The BJP had been claiming that there were atleast 1.25 crore fake entries in the electoral rolls in Bengal that include Bangladeshi infiltrators, dead or left voters whose names should be deleted.

The TMC, on the other hand, has accused the ECI of “working at the behest of its bosses in Delhi for helping the BJP win elections.”

TMC spokesperson Arup Chakraborty said that “BJP has given a target to the ECI, which is trying to fulfill. Earlier, it had given two months’ time for SIR, which is absurd and unrealistic. But as the ECI failed to achieve the target fixed by the BJP ‘akas’ (bosses), they are now readjusting the time schedule... They want to ensure that the electoral rolls in a given number of seats are manipulated so as to confirm a BJP win. But the people have caught their game and are quite angry but they will once again defeat the BJP in Bengal as they have done in the past.” He said, like on previous occasions, the BJP will bring it’s “Rathis and Maharathis” (big commandars) but will not be able to win the elections.

CPI(M) State secretary Md Salim, on the other hand, slammed the ECI for” taking orders from the BJP,” which was once again proved by the extension of dates for surrender of enumeration forms.

Senior Congress leader Adhir Chowdhury too attacked the Commission for creating a situation where only either the BJP or the TMC can win.