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Blood on his hands: TMC flays CEC Gyanesh Kumar, cites 40 SIR-related deaths in West Bengal

Amid rising political tensions over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, a Trinamool Congress delegation on Friday met the full Election Commission bench and alleged that at least 40 deaths linked to the exercise had occurred in the state, accusing the poll panel chief of having blood on his hands. A 10-member delegation, led by TMC Rajya Sabha leader Derek O'Brien, met the EC officials amid the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls in 12 states and Union territories, including West Bengal. The delegation consisted of Lok Sabha MPs Mahua Moitra, Satabdi Roy, Kalyan Banerjee, Pratima Mondal, Sajda Ahmed, and Rajya Sabha MPs Dola Sen, Mamata Thakur, Saket Gokhale, and Prakash Chik Barik. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, O'Brien said the party raised five questions, but Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar did not give any answers. We started the meeting by stating that the CEC has blood on his hands. We raised five questions. After this, Kalyan Banerjee, Mahua Moitra, and Mamata Bala Thakur spoke and shared whatever they had to in about 40 minutes, O'Brien said. Then the CEC spoke uninterrupted for one hour. We were also not interrupted while we spoke, but we did not receive any answer to any of our five questions, he said. Fourth death of BLO reported in Bengal during SIR, incident triggers political row Moitra said the delegation shared with the CEC a list of 40 people whose deaths, they alleged, were linked to the SIR process. The commission, however, dismissed it as mere allegations, the Lok Sabha MP claimed. Meanwhile, O'Brien asserted that the TMC is not opposed to the concept of SIR, but is strongly opposed to the unplanned manner in which the CEC and EC are going about the job. Completely unplanned and heartless, he said about the SIR exercise. TMC RS MP Mamata Thakur also addressing the press conference, where she 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. While raising the issue of Booth Level Officer's (BLO) deaths in West Bengal, she said that the ECI is ot accepting that the deaths are due to the SIR. Notably, Multiple have died in West Bengal during the SIR process. Earlier, Congress spokesperson 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, Shrinate said. She outlined the case of Gonda BLO Vipin Yadav, who died by suicide, further stating that his family said that he was under pressure to remove the names of backward class members from the voter list. (With inputs from ANI and PTI) 'Why is ECI hiding details?': TMC slams poll body over use of 'mysterious' AI app for SIR in Bengal