Kolkata, Nov 20 (IANS) West Bengal Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday levelled explosive allegations, claiming that the pressure on booth-level officers (BLOs) is not due to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) workload, as asserted by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, but because district magistrates — who also serve as district electoral officers (DEOs) — are forcing them to engage in unethical practices during the voter list revision exercise.

Adhikari issued a statement on Thursday evening, shortly after reports surfaced about the Chief Minister writing to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar seeking an immediate halt to the SIR exercise to “relieve” BLOs of the workload. Responding sharply, Adhikari alleged that the real pressure on BLOs stemmed from political interference.

In the statement, the leader of the opposition alleged that districts like East Midnapore, Hooghly, and East Burdwan, among others, the district magistrates, as well as the DEOs, were acting as full-time Trinamool Congress election agents by putting pressure on the BLOs to share official OTPs either with the district magistrates or with the ruling party activists appointed as the data entry operators.

According to the leader of the opposition, this unethical pressure on the BLOs was intended to misuse the BLO App to tamper with the voter list that is currently being cleaned through the SIR process.

“The BLO App that is meant for voter list verification is now being hijacked by Mamata Banerjee’s Administration to add fake voters and delete genuine voters to manipulate the electoral roll,” the leader of the opposition claimed.

Adhikari has also alleged that putting this unethical pressure on the BLOs, the district magistrates were also threatening them with probable actions like transfers, suspension, and salary cuts, among others.

Earlier in the day, Mamata Banerjee wrote to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Gyanesh Kumar, objecting to Special Intensive Revision (SIR), claiming that the manner in which the exercise is being forced upon the electoral officials and citizens is “unplanned”, “chaotic”, and “dangerous”.

“I have time and again flagged my serious concerns in respect of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and the way it has been thrust upon the people,” she said.

–IANS

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