A five-member delegation of the Trinamul Congress met the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal, Manoj Agarwal over the deeply flawed and dangerous SIR process. They flagged how the BJP-controlled Election Commission of India is changing SIR rules mid-way to target Bengal and delete genuine voters.
The members of the delegation were Firhad Hakim, Mahua Moitra, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Partha Bhowmick and Baiswanor Chatterjee.
The team in its letter mentioned how silently the backend changes to the ERO portal are stripping officers of their legal powers. They also complained how West Bengal is being singled out with harsher rules, while BJP-ruled states get exemptions.
They also said that despite their protest, bulk Form-7 objections were enabled, violating ECI’s own manuals. The Trinamul party leaders also said how political pressure, forged forms & outsiders are being used to engineer mass deletions and mapped voters forced to “prove citizenship” again for minor spelling errors. Poor, women & elderly voters harassed due to rigid, unrealistic document demands, the team alleged, addressing a Press conference outside the CEO office.
Madhyamik Admit Card being rejected, which is threatening large-scale disenfranchisement, they said, adding, intimidating hearing procedures are being imposed only in Bengal.
“This is not revision but voter suppression. Under the leadership of CM Mamata Banerjee, we will fight this undemocratic, unconstitutional SIR and protect every voter of Bengal,” said the leaders.