KOLKATA: A 15-member delegation, led by West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, will meet with the Election Commission of India (ECI) at Nirvachan Sadan in Delhi on Monday.
The delegation is meeting with the ECI to raise their objection against the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state.
Abhishek Banerjee, national general secretary of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), along with other senior leaders, including some MPs and a few voters listed as ‘dead’ in the electoral rolls during the SIR exercise, will also be part of the team.
According to ECI sources, the Commission has decided to give an appointment to the TMC delegation at around 4 pm on February 2.
It is learnt that the ECI conveyed the date and time of the appointment to the party leadership.
The TMC has been protesting against the SIR since the exercise was launched in the state on November 4 last year.
With several common citizens and Booth Level Officers (BLOs) allegedly dying due to panic, stress and workload linked to the SIR process over the past 94 days, the ruling party leadership stepped up its attack on the BJP and the national poll body.
Calling the SIR process “inhuman and hasty”, the TMC leadership accused the ECI of revising electoral rolls allegedly at the BJP’s instructions and demanded that the Commission stop the exercise in the state.
Mamata has already written five times to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, urging him to stop the SIR in view of the deaths of many people in Bengal.
Both Mamata and Abhishek have claimed that 126 people have died so far in the state after being unable to cope with anxiety and stress caused by fears of their names being removed from the electoral rolls or due to heavy work pressure linked to the SIR drive.
While addressing a public rally in Singur in Hooghly district on Wednesday, Mamata also came down heavily on the BJP and the ECI for allegedly harassing people in the name of SIR hearings across the state.
The Commission has already issued notices to 1.5 crore voters in the ‘logical discrepancies’ and ‘unmapped’ categories, asking them to appear at SIR hearing centres.
After receiving the ECI’s appointment, the TMC camp felt that its leadership would be able to present its grievances against the SIR with strong arguments during the meeting.