New Delhi: A ten-member delegation of Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs on Friday (November 28) met the Election Commission and accused the poll body of having “blood on its hands” for the deaths of 40 election officials during the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in West Bengal. The Election Commission on the other hand claimed in the evening that it had provided a point-wise rebuttal to the points raised by the TMC, which the party termed as “outright lies”.

Following the meeting, TMC MP Derek O’Brien said to reporters that the delegation handed over a list of 40 people who have died due to the SIR process.

“We started the meeting by telling him [Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar] that Mr Kumar and the Election Commission of India have blood on their hands,” O’Brien alleged.

The delegation alleged that the Election Commission seemed surprised that people had lost their lives during the SIR process.

“We held a two-hour meeting but the main point of the meeting was we started off by presenting a list of 40 people, 17-18 of whom were BLOs whose deaths were directly linked to the SIR process. We were met with complete surprise by the Election Commissioner who actually said that these were mere ‘allegations’ and it seemed as though the Election Commission had no idea that these people had died in West Bengal which was to our great surprise," said Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra, who was also part of the delegation.

The party's Lok Sabha deputy leader Shatabdi Roy said that the party posed five questions to the Election Commission. 

They asked why, if the intention of the SIR was to weed out fake voters and alleged infiltrators, Bengal was being targeted while no SIR was being conducted in other border states like Meghalaya and Tripura; and why Assam, which is also a border state, was having a special revision while Bengal is undergoing the SIR.

The party also said that if the present voter list is not trustworthy, then it calls into question the validity of the Lok Sabha and the house should be dissolved.

"While we were in the meeting we got reports of a 40th person who died during the SIR process so we asked the commission whether it will take responsibility for these deaths and how it will help the families," Roy said.

"When BJP is announcing in Bengal that 1 crore voters will be deleted, the Election Commission is not doing anything to stop the BJP. Does this mean that the BJP is controlling the EC?" he asked.

‘Point-wise rebuttal’ versus ‘outright lies’

Later on Friday evening, competing claims emerged from the meeting, with the Election Commission saying it had provided a “point-wise rebuttal” of all apprehensions and “each baseless allegation” made by the TMC delegation, while the party said the poll body was putting out “selective leaks” and termed them “outright lies”.

The Election Commission said in the evening that it had told the delegation that claims and objections can be submitted after December 9, when the draft list will be published.

"Till then they should not interfere with the independent functioning of BLOs [booth-level officers], EROs [electoral registration officers] and DEOs [district election officers] who are state government employees on deputation to election-related works.”

The EC has also sent a letter to the West Bengal director general of police and the Kolkata police commissioner to ensure that BLOs are not pressured or threatened by political party workers.

The TMC on the other hand accused the EC of "planting selective leaks" and called them outright lies.

"The Election Commission is deliberately planting selective leaks to falsely claim that they have provided a point-by-point rebuttal to the issues raised by the AITC delegation today," said TMC MP and party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in a statement.

"These assertions are not just misleading, they are OUTRIGHT LIES. If the EC truly has nothing to hide and actually believes in transparency, then instead of hiding behind motivated leaks, it must immediately release the full CCTV footage and every piece of evidence it claims to possess. Anything less only exposes their bad faith and raises serious questions about their intent."

O’Brien said that the TMC is not opposed to the SIR but the “unplanned” and “heartless” manner in which it is being conducted.

“The TMC is not opposed to the concept of SIR. We are strongly opposed to the unplanned manner in which this CEC and the Election Commission is going about the job. Completely unplanned, heartless," he said.

The Wire has reported that a BLO in Nadia district died by suicide last week following extreme distress and alleging "inhuman pressure". 

The incident came barely days after another BLO in North Bengal allegedly died by suicide under similar circumstances earlier this week, fuelling fears that the SIR cycle is pushing field-level workers to breaking point. 

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