KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra and Special Electoral Roll Observer (SERO) IAS C S Murugan engage in a war of words over the alleged use of micro-observers to delete names from the voter list, violating Supreme Court (SC) directives.
Without naming anybody, the bureaucrat wrote in his post on X, “I don’t have as many guns as depicted in the picture. However, I was trained to handle different types of guns and legally and effectively used them during my four and a half years training in Police Service in Tamil Nadu.”
The post is assumed to be a counter-attack on TMC MP Mahua Moitra, who on February 18 wrote in her post on X, “Please control your Roll Observer C. Murugan IAS 2007 Dy Chairperson Tea Board who is issuing incorrect directions on secret whatsap groups to Micro Observers in violation of Supreme Court orders.”
She had attached a picture of a popular cinema figure captioned ‘Quick Gun Murugan’.
The MP's post was written shortly after TMC delegates lodged a complaint with the office of the West Bengal Chief electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal on February 18 after TMC national general secretary Abhshiek Banerjee accused the ECI of using micro-observers to delete names of voters from list violating directives of the Supreme Court (SC).
Abhishek also alleged that a SERO Murugan was giving instructions to the micro-observers through WhatsApp to delete names of voters and shared screenshots of the messages on his X page.
“Even more disturbing are credible reports of Special Roll Observer, C. Murugan, issuing instructions regarding the acceptability of birth certificates directly to Micro Observers in a WhatsApp group, to inflate deletion numbers. Need I remind the ECI of the Supreme Court’s categorical directive that the role of micro-observers must remain strictly assistive? Why, then, is statutory procedure being bypassed, and under whose instructions?” according to his post.
The poll official has been accused of instructing electoral registration officers (EROs) of rejecting birth certificates issued by the local panchayats in the rural constituencies as proof of birth.
The SC, while issuing a set of directives during the hearing, which was attended by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, had stated that final decision on inclusion and exclusion of electors rested with the EROs.
The micro-observers were not authorised to make any decisions and all documents issued by competent authorities to be accepted by the central poll panel.
“Roll observers are designated district-wise, yet it is seen that login credentials linked to these observers are being accessed from a central location in Calcutta. Login data is being misused to generate queries and specifically target a certain community at the direction of the EC’s political masters in Delhi,” Abhishek said.
“Should this matter be independently examined, it will be established that the tower location and IP address of the login device differ from the actual location of the roll observer concerned.”
Rubbishing Abhishek’s allegations the SRO C Murugan had told media, “No directive was given to anybody through WhatsApp messages. Only clarifications were given on some directives of the ECI.”
Murugan was not available for comment at the time of writing this article.