Mamata writes to CEC over polling stations in private housing complexes

Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday wrote a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, flagging concerns over the poll panel’s decision to appoint private data entry operators and setting up polling stations in private housing complexes.

The chief minister said that while the timing and manner of the request for proposal to engage around 1,000 data entry operators “certainly raise legitimate doubts”, the decision to set up polling stations in private housing complexes would have a “severe impact on the fairness of the electoral process”.

“I urge you to examine these issues with utmost seriousness, impartiality and transparency. It is essential that the dignity, neutrality and credibility of the commission remain above reproach and are not compromised under any circumstances”

Last week the chief minister wrote a letter to the CEC urging him to halt the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state. In the three-page letter to the poll panel chief on November 20, Banerjee wrote that continuing this “unplanned and coercive drive” will not only endanger more lives but will also jeopardize the legitimacy of the electoral revision.

Banerjee in her latest letter to the CEC stated that the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) had directed district election officers not to engage contractual data entry operators and Bangla Sahyata Kendra (BSK) staff for SIR-related or other election-related data work. Instead, a request for proposal has been floated to hire 1,000 data entry operators and 50 software developers for one year.

“Is this exercise being undertaken at the behest of a political party to serve vested interests?” she asked in her letter.

Also, the poll panel is considering setting up polling stations within private residential complexes and the DEO’s have been asked to provide recommendations.

“Why is such a move being contemplated at all? Again, is this being done under the pressure from a political party to advance their partisan interests? Why? Why? Why?” she wrote.

On November 21 the state CEO had sent a letter to the DEOs stating that contractual data entry operators and BSK staff cannot be engaged for the SIR.

Last week, Suvendu Adhikari, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator and the leader of the Opposition in the state legislative assembly, wrote on X: “The ECI guidelines are crystal clear – Contractual Data Entry Operators, Contractual Staff, BSK Staff, or any such personnel cannot be involved in Data Entry works for the ongoing SIR.”