Kolkata: A ten-member delegation of the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal is likely to meet chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Friday.
Meanwhile, protests by the booth-level officer (BLO) Adhikar Raksha Committee, an organisation of BLOs and other government officials, over work load of BLOs due to the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) continued outside the office of the West Bengal chief electoral officer (CEO) in central Kolkata for the second day in a row. It is likely to continue till December 4.
On Sunday the TMC had sought an appointment from Kumar for a party delegation to meet the poll panel chief. On Monday the CEC sent a letter to the party stating that the CEC would meet a five-member delegation of the TMC on November 28 at Nirvachan Sadan.
On Tuesday, however, Derek O’Brien, leader of the TMC in the Rajya Sabha, sent a list of ten MPs who would meet the CEC on Friday.
“Time has been sought for a delegation of 10 MPs. They are representatives ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, unlike the CEC and ECs who are hand-picked by the Government of India. These selective leaks portraying the EC as “transparent” and “cordial” are nothing but a manufactured facade. If the @ECISVEEP is genuinely transparent, why is it scared to face just 10 MPs? Hold the meeting openly. TELECAST IT LIVE and answer the five straightforward, legitimate questions that the AITC will place before you. Is the Election Commission willing to prove its transparency or does it only function behind closed doors?” Abhishek Banerjee, TMC MP and the party’s national general secretary wrote on X.
Suvendu Adhikari, BJP legislator and leader of the Opposition in the state legislative assembly, meanwhile, wrote a letter to the CEC, alleging politicisation of the police in the state.
“Failure to address this malignancy will undermine public faith in the electoral process and embolden authoritarian tendencies in West Bengal. As the guardian of India’s democratic ethos, the EC must act decisively to restore balance and protect the sanctity of elections,” Adhikari wrote in his letter.
Meanwhile, the protest by a section of BLOs, who have been echoing the line of the ruling TMC, entered the second day on Tuesday. The BLO Adhikar Raksha Committee, gheraoed the CEO’s office in Kolkata till late on Monday night. The protest continued till Tuesday evening.
“We met the WBCEO on Tuesday evening and submitted a deputation. We have urged him to either halt the SIR or extend the December 4 deadline of submission of enumeration forms. Our protest will continue till December 4,” said Maidul Islam, convenor of the committee. Islam is not a BLO.
“Yesterday and today’s so-called “BLO agitation” at the Election Commission of India (ECI) Office in Kolkata is simply a TMC-orchestrated circus to intimidate a Constitutional body and sabotage our Democracy,” Adhikari wrote on X.
