Kolkata: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday directed the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (WBCEO) to shift the poll panel’s office in Kolkata to a more secure location, days after a “serious security breach” in which a group of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) “gheraoed” the CEO and his team.
“Based on recent incidents relating to breach of security at the office of the CEO in West Bengal, ECI has directed the office to be shifted to a secured location. ECI also directed the Kolkata Police Commissioner to ensure complete security of the CEO’s existing and new office,” said a senior ECI official.
The poll panel also directed the director general of West Bengal Police and the Kolkata Police commissioner to ensure security of the CEO’s office in Kolkata and that no political parties threaten booth-level workers.
Meanwhile, a 10-member delegation of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) met the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Friday and alleged that at least 40 people, including some Booth Level Officers (BLOs), have died of fear and work overload of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal. The party handed over a list to CEC Kumar.
“We handed over to him (CEC) a list of around 40 dead because of the SIR process while sharing all the details. We started the meeting by telling him that the CEC and the ECI have blood on their hands,” Derek O’Brien, leader of the TMC Parliamentary party in the Rajya Sabha, said after the meeting in Delhi.
The delegation had five Lok Sabha MPs and five Rajya Sabha MPs of the TMC. The meeting lasted for around two hours.
“We raised five questions. Kumar spoke for around one hour. We didn’t get an answer to any of our five questions,” O’Brien said.
A senior official of the ECI, however, said that the poll panel gave a point-wise rebuttal of all apprehensions and each “baseless” allegation made by the TMC. The poll panel also asked the TMC not to influence or threaten the BLOs during their work, he added.
“ECI further requested the TMC to give claims and objections after December 9 when the draft list is shared. Till then the TMC should not interfere with the independent functioning of BLOs, EROs and DEOs who are state government employees on deputation to election-related works,” the poll panel official said.
During the meeting, the ECI also told the TMC that the West Bengal government was yet to disburse the increased honorarium for BLOs, which was approved by the ECI.
“The Election Commission is deliberately planting selective leaks to falsely claim that they have provided a point-by-point rebuttal to the issues raised by the AITC delegation today. These assertions are not just misleading, they are OUTRIGHT LIES. If the EC truly has nothing to hide and actually believes in transparency, then instead of hiding behind motivated leaks, it must immediately release the full CCTV footage and every piece of evidence it claims to possess. Anything less only exposes their bad faith and raises serious questions about their intent,” TMC National general secretary Abhishek Banerjee wrote on X.
This comes days after chief minister Mamata Banerjee wrote back-to-back letters to the CEC earlier this month. In the first letter, she urged the CEC to halt the SIR in the state, labelling it as an unplanned and coercive drive. In the second letter, the chief minister flagged concerns over the poll panel’s decision to appoint private data entry operators and set up polling stations in private housing complexes.
“The TMC is not opposed to the concept of SIR. We are strongly opposed to the unplanned manner in which the ECI is going about the job. It is completely unplanned and heartless,” O’Brien said.
“The TMC should first publish the list of TMC workers who were killed in the past few years and say who has blood on their hands. It can’t be that the CEC will make some statements from Delhi and the situation in West Bengal will be completely different. The CEC has to come down to West Bengal. He has to take stock of the ground situation here. He can’t just send some representatives and take deputations sitting in Delhi,” BJP president in West Bengal Samik Bhattacharya said.
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