A 10-member TMC MP delegation met CEC Gyanesh Kumar, accusing the ECI of having ‘blood on their hands’ over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). They submitted a list of 40 alleged deaths and claimed their questions went unanswered.
TMC Accuses ECI of Having ‘Blood on Their Hands’
A delegation of 10 Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs held a meeting with Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Friday, objecting to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal and other states across the country. During the meeting, the TMC delegation told CEC Kumar that they have “blood on their hands,” and submitted a list on 40 people who are dead “because of the SIR process”, according to MP Derek O’Brien
“10 MPs from the All India Trinamool Congress met with the Chief Election Commissioner Mr Kumar and his team. We first handed over to him a list of almost 40 dead because of the SIR process. We started the meeting by telling him that Mr Kumar and the Election Commission of India have blood on their hands,” TMC MP Derek O’Brien said during a press conference after meeting ECI.
Apart from O’Brien, Rajya Sabha MPs Dola Sena, Saket Gokhale, Mamata Thakur, and Mahua Moitra were also present in the meeting and the press conference. The TMC MP said that they raised atleast five questions during the meeting but “did not get an answer to any of them.”
“We raised five questions on behalf of the All India Trinamool Congress. We did not get an answer to any of our five questions. That is the outline of what happened,” he added. According to the TMC MP, the delegation spoke uninterrupted for 40 minutes in the 2-hour meeting, and afterwards heard CEC Gyanesh Kumar.
Questions Raised on SIR Process
TMC RS MP Mamata Thakur also addressing the press conference, where he talked about the questions raised during meeting. “If infiltrators are there, then why are Mizoram, Tripura, Arunachal, Nagaland not included (in SIR process), and only West Bengal is included? They say they are not voters and torture Bengalis across states. People think they are not speaking Bangla, and brand them Bangladeshis,” the TMC MP asked.
Raising doubts over the legitimacy of previous elections, Thakur added, “If this voter list is wrong, are all the other votes (in previous elections) not valid? If this is not voter list is not correct then that voter list is also not correct.”
Controversy Over BLO Deaths
While raising the issue of Booth Level Officer’s (BLO) deaths in West Bengal, she said that the ECI is “not accepting” that the deaths are due to the SIR. “Third is, the Election Commission is not agreeing that BLOs are getting tortured. They are saying that they will work atleast this much. We have the list, 39 people, and when we were talking a report, bringing the list to 40 with more than half of them naming the Election Commission in their suicide note,” Mamata Thakur said.
Multiple have died in West Bengal during the SIR process. Earlier, TMC claimed that a BLO working in Murshidabad died of cardiac arrest, marking the fourth such death in the state. Earlier, Congress leader Supriya Shrinate also claimed that 26 BLOs have died in 210 days, calling it “murder in broad daylight.”
“Because of SIR, 26 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) have died in 20 days. This is not some narrative but a harsh truth before the nation. Where is Gyanesh Kumar? The list for local body elections in Maharashtra has come out, showing the addresses of 200 people registered at two coaching institutes, where even a bird can’t sit. Because of Rahul Gandhi, this country has received evidence and proof of vote theft, and neither Gyanesh Gupta nor the BJP has a single answer to those proofs.” She outlined the case of Gonda BLO Vipin Yadav, who committed suicide by consuming poison, further stating that his family said that he was under pressure to remove the names of backward class members from the voter list. (ANI)
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