KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday wrote yet another letter to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, accusing the Election Commission of India (ECI) of lacking “sensitivity and understanding of ground realities” in the state in the wake of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Earlier, on January 3, the Chief Minister had written to the CEC urging him to “halt” the “unplanned, arbitrary and adhoc exercise” immediately. She had also previously requested him to stop the process in Bengal.
With Saturday’s communication, Mamata has written to Gyanesh for the fourth time since November, opposing the SIR exercise in the state.
Expressing deep concern over the difficulties faced by migrant workers from Bengal and people currently residing outside the state, Mamata stated in the letter, “ECI has woken up so late in the day to allow only select electors to appear through their authorised family members for the hearing. The same courtesy has not been extended to migrant workers. This is a reflection of lack of sensitivity and understanding about the ground realities.”
“All this reflects a disturbing pattern of political bias and autocratic high handedness by an institution that is expected to function as a constitutional authority. The ECI appears to have descended to a level that is difficult to comprehend and deeply alarming for any democratic society,” she said, targeting the national poll panel.
She also alleged in the letter that the Commission’s objective “seem neither of correction nor of inclusion in the electoral rolls, but solely of deletion and of exclusion”.
The Chief Minister urged the CEC to minimise the harassment, inconvenience and agony of the “common citizen of the state” who are being served notices by the Commission to appear at hearing centres.
At the end of the letter, in a handwritten note, she wrote, “Though I know you won’t reply or clarify. But my duty to inform you the details.”
“I am once again constrained to write to you in order to place on record my grave concern regarding the serious irregularities, procedural violations and administrative lapses being witnessed during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal,” the CM had stated in her last letter to Gyanesh on January 3.
She had alleged that the entire exercise is fundamentally flawed because of the lack of adequate groundwork or preparation, the absence of proper or uniform training of officials “entrusted with this sensitive constitutional responsibility”, a defective IT system, lack of clarity and improper planning by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
“Although the exercise is described as time bound, there are no clearly defined, transparent, or uniformly applicable timelines. Different states are following different criteria, and timelines are being altered arbitrarily, reflecting a glaring lack of clarity, preparedness, and procedural understanding.
Shockingly, critical instructions are being issued almost on a daily basis, frequently through informal channels such as WhatsApp messages and text messages,” she had alleged in the four page letter.
The CM had also raised serious allegations in connection with deletions of voters from the electoral rolls.
“There are grave allegations regarding the backend deletion of electors through the misuse of IT systems, without following the process and without the knowledge or approval of the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), who are the competent statutory authorities under the Representation of People Act. This raises serious questions as to who has authorised such actions and under what legal authority,” she said in the letter.
She has also made strong objections against the process of holding SIR hearings where electors are summoned without being shown any specific reasons, allegedly subjecting them to “needless anxiety and harassment”.
“Even elderly, infirm, and seriously ill citizens are not being spared. Many electors are being compelled to travel distances of 20 to 25 kilometres to attend hearings, which have inexplicably been centralised rather than decentralised. This has caused severe hardship to ordinary citizens,” she had stated.
“The SIR process is deeply compromised and strikes at the basic structural framework of our democracy and the spirit of the Constitution,” she had claimed.