CEC Gyanesh Kumar and team have ‘blood on their hands’: TMC delegation slams ECI for BLO fatalities during SIR exercise

A 10-member Trinamool Congress delegation led by party MP Derek O’Brien Friday met with the Election Commission of India (ECI) to raise their grievances related to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in West Bengal.

During the meeting, the TMC delegation prominently raised the issue of reported “suicides” by several Booth Level Officers (BLOs) allegedly due to intense pressure to meet their SIR targets within a tight deadline.

Advertisement

Addressing a press conference after the meeting, TMC MP Mahua Moitra, who was part of the delegation, said, “We held a two-hour meeting and began by presenting a list of 40 people, 17–18 of whom were BLOs whose deaths were directly linked to the SIR process.”

However, Mahua claimed that Election Commissioners dismissed these deaths as mere “allegations”.

She said the delegation raised five key questions, but did not get any answers to their questions.

“We then raised five key questions. First: if the SIR exercise was meant to identify non-citizens, what was the final count in Bihar? Despite earlier claims of ‘lakhs’, not a single confirmed case has been reported.

“The same applies to Bengal, while other states like Tripura, Meghalaya, and those bordering Myanmar also face infiltration concerns, SIR is being conducted only in West Bengal, suggesting Bihar was merely a trial and West Bengal the real target,” she said.

The TMC delegation also asked why Assam is undergoing only a special revision and not an intensive one.

She also asserted that if the ECI itself says the existing electoral rolls are unreliable, the validity of the entire Lok Sabha comes into question as the general elections were held based on the same voter list.

TMC MP Derek O’Brien also echoed his party colleague Moitra, saying the ECI failed to answer any of their questions during the meeting.

Referring to the deaths of BLOs part of the SIR exercise, O’Brien said that Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and his team have blood on their hands.

“We have a list of almost 40 dead officials because of the SIR process…The Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and his team have ‘blood on their hands’,” he added.