New Delhi/Kolkata: The tussle between the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Election Commission of India (ECI) intensified on Saturday over the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, with the former claiming the poll body was spreading “false narratives” over the ongoing exercise and the latter accusing the Mamata Banerjee government of not releasing enhanced honorarium for booth-level officers (BLOs) despite its approval.
It came a day after a 10-member delegation of the TMC met the ECI top brass and alleged that around 40 SIR-related deaths had occurred in the eastern state, a charge junked by the poll body.
On Saturday, TMC’s leader in Rajya Sabha Derek O’Brien reiterated his party’s allegation that ECI was “responsible for the deaths of 40 BLOs” in West Bengal. “Some fake narrative may come out again. Because what will happen? Who is pressurising these BLOs? Let it be known today on the 29th of November, the BLOs are being pressurised because of the work they have been given through the Election Commission of India,” he said at a press conference in Delhi in the national capital.
O’Brien alleged that ECI did not answer the five key questions raised by the TMC delegation on Friday and demanded that the poll body should release the transcript of the meeting. He added that the TMC was not against the SIR exercise, but against the manner in which it was being undertaken in West Bengal, which will go to assembly polls next year.
“Now the question is, if we are saying all this, all 10 of us MPs, then why don’t you release the transcript of what was discussed at yesterday’s meeting?” O’Brien, who was accompanied by party Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale and Lok Sabha MPs Pratima Mondal and Sajda Ahmed, added.
His remarks came after ECI asserted that it gave a “point by point rebuttal” to the TMC’s concerns regarding the SIR exercise and deaths of BLOs during the meeting. On Friday, TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee accused ECI of circulating “selective leaks” and “distorted narratives through fabricated leaks.” Banerjee further claimed that the poll body was spreading misleading information to claim it had rebutted the TMC’s concerns, calling those assertions “outright lies.” He demanded that ECI make public all CCTV footage and documentary evidence related to the matter. “Anything less only exposes their bad faith and raises serious questions about their intent,” Banerjee had said in a post on X.
ECI, which dismissed the TMC’s allegations targeting it for BLOs’ deaths as “baseless”, had accused the West Bengal’s ruling party of attempting to “influence or threaten” BLOs during the SIR. A senior poll panel official said the TMC was advised to file claims and objections only after December 9, when the draft electoral rolls would be published, and not interfere in the functioning of field officers, who are state government employees deputed for election work. The poll body also alleged that the Mamata Banerjee-led government had not yet disbursed the increased honorarium for BLOs, despite ECI’s approval of the revised rates.
“ECI had also told the TMC delegation that it is very strange that the enhanced honorarium of ₹12,000 per year and additional ₹6,000 for SIR approved by ECI for BLOs and EROs has not yet been disbursed by the state government. This should be done without any further delay,” the senior official said, requesting anonymity. “Why is the West Bengal government harassing the BLOs by not releasing the due amounts to them?”
Meanwhile, BLO Adhikar Raksha Committee, an organisation of BLOs and other government officials, staged a protest in Kolkata demanding compensation for BLOs who died allegedly during SIR-related work. Family members of a BLO, who reportedly died of heart attack on Thursday night in Murshidabad district, joined the protest. Some protestors lied down on the road to stop the CEO’s vehicle before being dispersed by the police.
ECI has appointed retired IAS officer Subrata Gupta as the ‘special roll observer’ for the SIR exercise in West Bengal. Besides Gupta, a 1990-batch West Bengal cadre IAS officer, who has been assigned the task to oversee that SIR was carried out as per the directions of poll body, ECI has also roped in 12 IAS officers as electoral roll observers to supervise the key aspects of electoral roll preparations following the SIR.
ECI has also directed all district magistrates in the state to map housing societies where polling stations may be set up during the assembly polls scheduled in 2026. The DMs, who double up as DEOs, have been directed to complete rationalisation of polling stations by December 4 this year.
“The ECI has sent a letter to the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (WBCEO) and all DEO to identify urban areas where group housing societies and high-rise residential buildings are located so as to find out where adequate rooms such as common facilitation area, community halls, schools are available within the premises of such societies for the purpose of setting up polling stations to cater to the resident electors,” ECI said in a letter to the WBCEO on Friday.
