KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister (CM) Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday made blistering attacks against the Election Commission of India (ECI) for displaying a discriminatory attitude in connection with the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the State.
The CM, during a press conference at the State secretariat Nabanna this afternoon, alleged that documents required for SIR are valid in the BJP-led Bihar but invalid in Bengal for the same voters’ list revision exercise.
Mamata termed the Commission as ‘capture commission’ and ‘commission run in Md Bin Tughlaque style’.
She also alleged that the national poll panel is not following the directives of the Supreme Court, where she had filed a petition against the SIR drive in Bengal.
“I call the Nirvachan Commission a torture commission since the SIR was launched in the State. The Commission is trying to hold elections in the State before the normal schedule, and the same thing has happened in Haryana and Maharashtra, respectively,” she said, intensifying its attacks against the Commission today.
“One BJP lady using AI has deleted names of 58 lakh voters from the draft electoral rolls, and there are many valid voters among the deleted people. The Commission is unleashing a threat culture in Bengal,” the CM alleged.
“The entire democratic system is being bulldozed to protect the interests of only one party (BJP),” she said.
Reacting to the ECI decision to suspend seven poll officials, she said, “We will promote them. They were suspended without getting any scope to defend themselves.”
The ECI on Sunday night suspended the seven Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) who are West Bengal Civil Service (WBCS) executives, from six assembly segments in Bengal after holding them guilty of allegedly including several ineligible persons in the post-Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the State.
It is learnt that the suspended officers have worked in their respective offices till Monday.
Sources said, for the first time, the ECI suspended the seven poll-duty officials directly in Bengal instead of recommending such punitive action to the State government.
Poll panel sources said the revelation that a few AEROs had allowed ineligible names on the rolls had hung a cloud on the publication of the final rolls on February 28.
The ECI on Friday had also asked the chief secretary, Nandini Chakraborty, to lodge an FIR against the four government officers, including two West Bengal Civil Service (WBCS) executives, by 17 February.
The four officers, former Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs), of the Baruipur Purba and Moyna Assembly segments, respectively.
The South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore districts had allegedly enrolled fictitious voters last year. Nabanna has not yet lodged an FIR against the four officers till this evening, despite the ECI directive.
Nandini rushed to Delhi on Friday evening and appeared before the full Bench of the ECI to explain why the poll panel’s directives could not be implemented so far.
Sources in the Commission said, “Besides lodging FIRs against four government officers by 17 February, she has also been asked to implement several other directives issued by the Commission earlier.”
