TMC Delegation Calls on ECI Accusing CEC of “Blood in his Hands,” Third BLO Death Reported from Gujarat
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 28: As BJP-ruled Gujarat reported the third death of the Booth Level Officers (BLO) engaged in the “Special Intensive Revision” (SIR) of electoral rolls, a Trinamool Congress delegation on Friday met the full bench of the Election Commission of India (ECI) in New Delhi alleging about 40 SIR-related deaths in West Bengal alone accusing the poll panel chief of having “blood on his hands.”
Amidst strong protests against the SIR exercise in West Bengal, the 10-member delegation of the TMC MPs called on the poll panel with a request to suspend the process for the time being and take it up more leisurely once the state Assembly elections due early next year was over.
The delegation consisted of Lok Sabha MPs Mahua Moitra, Satabdi Roy, Kalyan Banerjee, Pratima Mondal, Sajda Ahmed, and Rajya Sabha MPs Dola Sen, Mamata Thakur, Saket Gokhale, and Prakash Chik Barik. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Mr O’Brien said the party raised five questions, but Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar did not give any answers.
“We started the meeting by stating that the CEC has blood on his hands. We raised five questions. After this, Kalyan Banerjee, Mahua Moitra and Mamata Bala Thakur spoke and shared whatever they had to in about 40 minutes,” Derek O’Brien, leader of the TMC Parliamentary Party in the Rajya Sabha said. “Then the CEC spoke uninterrupted for one hour. We were also not interrupted while we spoke, but we did not receive any answer to any of our five questions,” he said.
Ms Moitra said the delegation shared with the CEC a list of 40 people whose deaths, they alleged, were linked to the SIR process. The commission, however, dismissed it as mere allegations, the Lok Sabha MP claimed. Mr O’Brien asserted that the TMC was not opposed to the concept of SIR, but was “strongly opposed to the unplanned manner in which the CEC and EC are going about the job.” “Completely unplanned and heartless,” he said about the SIR exercise.
Ms Moitra said when the delegation handed over the list of deceased people, the CEC seemed surprised and said they were “merely allegations”. “As if the CEC had no idea that they died due to the SIR,” said Moitra. “Of the 40, 18 were BLOs whose deaths have been completely linked to the SIR process. We were met with complete surprise on the part of the CEC, who said these were mere allegations,” Moitra said, alleging that the Bihar SIR was the trial, while Bengal was the real picture.
The meeting comes amid protests by the ruling party in West Bengal against the SIR exercise in the state. While the TMC has claimed 40 deaths occurred due to the SIR since it started in West Bengal, poll officials have questioned the link between the deaths and the electoral rolls revision process.
In Gujarat, a school teacher working as a BLO for the ongoing SIR process in Mehsana district died on Friday morning, but while the teachers’ association claimed the BLO’s death was due to the excessive work pressure on account of SIR and lack of facilities, the police claimed he died due to heart attack and there was no link with the SIR exercise.
“Dinesh Raval (50), a resident of Sudasana village, died of a heart attack in his home in the intervening night of Thursday and Friday. He was a teacher in a government primary school in the village and was recently made BLO for carrying out SIR,” Satlasana police station sub inspector Udaysinh Zala said.
“He was rushed to a government hospital in Vadnagar after his health deteriorated at his home. The post mortem report put the cause of death as heart attack. Neither his family nor his colleagues have made any allegations against anyone so far,” Mr Zala added.
Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi, however, alleged BLOs are under immense pressure to finish the assigned work in time. President of Gujarat State Primary Teacher Association, Digvijaysinh Jadeja, said he came to know from other teachers that Raval was under pressure due to BLO related work.
“I urge the government to find an alternative because teachers who are deployed as BLOs are under immense pressure. They have to work as teachers and also as BLOs the whole year. Some are working overnight to finish the task,” said Mr Jadeja.
On November 20, Rameshbhai Parmar, a school teacher working as a BLO in Kheda district in central Gujarat, died of a heart attack, with his family attributing his death to “excessive work pressure” linked to the ongoing SIR. On the next day, Arvind Vadher, a school teacher deployed to work as BLO allegedly ended his life in Gujarat’s Gir Somnath district. His family claimed he left a note citing “mental stress and exhaustion” from SIR work.
Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday made a fresh attack on the SIR exercise claiming it was a “big conspiracy” against the people of the country that could push citizens into a state “worse than the colonial era.” The BJP State spokesperson Harishchandra Srivastava hit back at Mr Yadav, saying that the SP chief was making a malicious attempt to spread fear and confusion among the public through his post.
Posting a 20-second video on the SIR process on his official X handle, Mr Yadav appealed to all opposition parties, including allies of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), to “unite and expose this mega-conspiracy of the BJP.”
Attacking the roll revision exercise, he charged, “This is fraud with democracy. People must stay alert. Today, votes are being cut, tomorrow names will be removed from land records, ration cards, caste certificates, reservations, and later even from bank accounts and lockers of the middle-class.”
In a detailed post, the SP chief said, “This is a major conspiracy against the people of this country, which will lead to a situation far worse than the colonial era. This is the time to wake up and protect every single vote.” The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister warned that parties currently supporting the BJP would be the “first to be finished,” and called on citizens to “drop everything and stop the fraud taking place under SIR.”
Accusing the BJP, its allies, the State government, and “some corrupt officials in the Election Commission” of attempting to take over the entire electoral system, Mr Yadav said, “Let us unite to save the country from the open loot by BJP leaders and their allies, and to save our identity represented through our vote. Otherwise, tomorrow they will declare themselves as outsiders.”
Later, Mr Srivastava hit back at Mr Yadav, saying that the SP chief was making a malicious attempt to spread fear and confusion among the public through his post, but he would not succeed. “This is Digital India, the public knows the truth, and they cannot be misled. The atmosphere created by the opposition parties regarding reservations during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections is no longer possible because the public has understood the truth, there is no truth in the allegations of the opposition parties,” the BJP State spokesperson said.
He further noted that for the SIR exercise, the Chief Electoral Officers of the States have called a meeting of all the Opposition parties and appealed to them to appoint Booth Level Agents (BLAs) of their respective parties, to ensure that all political parties can access the names of individuals registered at the booth level in the voter list through SIR, eliminating any opportunities to complain about names being deleted from the SIR.
The SIR exercise is currently underway in nine states and three Union territories.
