KOLKATA: A spat broke out between leaders of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at an all-party meeting convened by West Bengal’s chief electoral officer (CEO) on Friday, after the topic shifted to the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls.
The Bengal CEO had convened the meeting to discuss the rationalisation of polling booths, a follow-up to similar meetings held earlier at the district level.
Aroop Biswas, the state minister who represented the TMC in the meeting, said the SIR was not on the agenda but was brought up by some people.
“SIR will not be implemented in West Bengal. The SIR was not on today’s agenda. The meeting was called primarily to discuss the rationalisation of polling stations. We attended the ECI’s meeting to voice the concerns of the people. But some people come here with a political agenda,” Biswas told reporters.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Shishir Bajoria stated that the TMC began protesting when the party mentioned that SIR was likely to be rolled out in the state ahead of the 2026 elections.
“The TMC started saying that they won’t allow the SIR to be held in the state. The TMC is scared because it knows that if SIR is implemented, the names of dead voters, fake voters, and illegal voters would be deleted. That would put an end to the TMC’s game,” said Bajoria.
Congress leaders were carrying placards with anti-SIR slogans.
ECI has decided to reduce the number of voters per polling station to 1,200 from the earlier 1,500, which will lead to an increase in the number of polling booths from 80,00 to 95,000.
Biswas said the TMC was not opposed to booth rationalisation. “But we have told the poll panel that the new booth, which would be set up to accommodate the voters beyond the 1200-mark, should be located within the same premises. It shouldn’t be in a far-off premises, which would split the voters of a locality into two,” he explained.
“We also want the ECI to act in an unbiased manner. It should be fair and not serve any political party. What would remain of a game if the umpire or referee is biased and favours one team,” he added.
Political parties also pointed out that the district magistrates, who double up as district electoral officers, have sent reports to the CEO’s office saying that all political parties have agreed to the proposals related to the rationalisation of polling stations and that there was no disagreement.
“We had raised some objections in the all-party meetings held in the districts on the rationalisation of polling stations. It appears that the objections were not recorded in the minutes of the meetings. The DEOs should be issued showcause notices and action should be taken against them,” said Bajoria.
