New Delhi: The BJP on Tuesday accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who took out another anti-SIR march in the state, of “threatening anarchy” and asserted that her efforts to derail the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls will not succeed.
It also alleged that Banerjee was “lying and twisting facts” with regard to the death of the booth level officers (BLOs) involved in the SIR exercise, and asked why her administration has not provided police and post-mortem reports of these poll officials “who died on duty”, depriving their families of due compensation.
Banerjee on Tuesday hit out at the Election Commission (EC) and the BJP over the ongoing SIR exercise in the state, and said the saffron party could deploy “crores of rupees and all central agencies”, but “would still not be able to fight” her politically.
“If you try to target and hit me (politically) in Bengal, I will shake your foundation across the country… A wounded tiger is more dangerous…,” the chief minister said while addressing the anti-SIR rally in West Bengal’s Bongaon.
Hitting back, BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari said in a post on X, “Mamata Banerjee is desperate, threatening anarchy as ‘ghuspaithya’ illegal infiltrators are being identified and removed in SIR.” BJP co-incharge for West Bengal Amit Malviya slammed Banerjee, calling her “caretaker CM”, and alleged that she has now levelled up from bullying BLOs to threatening the state’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO).
“With barely 6 months left in her final tenure, she’s suddenly the grand authority on everyone else’s future! Her pot of sins is overflowing, her empathy for BLOs is non-existent, and she’ll derail the SIR if that’s what it takes. But she won’t succeed,” Malviya said in a post on X.
“As for people’s trauma? It doesn’t even register on her radar,” he added.
Malviya alleged that Banerjee is lying and twisting facts with regard to the death of the BLOs, and shedding “crocodile tears”.
“Why hasn’t her administration provided police and post-mortem reports of BLOs who died on duty, depriving their families of due compensation? Why hasn‘t she released the Rs 18,000 payment for BLOs?…Why are data entry operators not being provided to the BLOs? Their workload could have been eased instantly,” he added.
The BJP leader also raised questions on Banerjee’s objection to the CEO’s office floating a Request for Proposal (RfP) for hiring 1,000 data entry operators and 50 software developers for a period of one year.
“It is widely known that one of her politically contracted agencies has penetrated multiple government bodies, sits in official meetings, and routinely meddles in administrative decisions. There are even allegations that members of this very agency were quietly appointed as DEOs and BSK (Bangla Sahayata Kendra) staff,” he charged.
He demanded that Banerjee make public the process adopted for these appointments.
“If the CEO has issued an RfP today, he has done so exactly as per her own financial rules,” the BJP leader said, contending that the Bihar government also appointed DEOs through this “exact mechanism” and other states are doing the same.
Malviya claimed that West Bengal has witnessed a 66 per cent increase in the number of registered voters from 4.58 crore to 7.63 crore since the last SIR was carried out in the state in 2002.
The EC data shows that among the top 10 districts with the highest increase in voters, nine share a border with Bangladesh, he said.
“These illegal infiltrators are now spread across Bengal and the rest of India, forming the core of Mamata Banerjee’s vote bank. This is why she is desperately trying to shield them. This is why her virulent opposition to the SIR is no surprise,” Malviya charged.