Kolkata, Feb 2 (IANS) Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, on Monday, alleged that the Trinamool Congress and its political consultancy firm I-PAC are jointly responsible for harassing people who have been summoned by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to appear for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) hearings.
A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) delegation led by LoP Adhikari, also met Governor C.V. Ananda Bose at the Lok Bhaban in Kolkata and apprised him of how lakhs of voters are being harassed because of the mistakes allegedly made by the Booth Level Officers (BLOs), Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) and District Election Officers (DEOs) with backdoor interventions of the I-PAC.
Later on Monday, the West Bengal BJP submitted deputations in offices of the DEOs across the state against this illegal practice.
The allegations from the LoP come on a day when the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee confronted security personnel deployed outside Banga Bhawan in Delhi, saying she came for justice to the families that suffered during the SIR, and not for an agitation.
Speaking to media persons outside the Lok Bhavan, LoP Adhikari alleged that Mamata Banerjee and the I-PAC have been spreading panic among common citizens in the name of SIR since the voter revision exercise began in the state on November 4 last year.
He also alleged that Chief Minister Banerjee used I-PAC personnel to coerce BLOs appointed by the ECI to deliberately make mistakes in the enumeration forms required for the SIR process.
LoP Adhikari told that he has already written to the State Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty seeking her appointment so that he can raise the issue before her.
“Everybody knows how Chief Ministers of other states behave with LoPs, MPs and leaders belonging to the opposition parties and at the same time what kind of treatment we get from our Chief Minister in West Bengal. During the last five years 86 false cases have been registered against me by her (Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s) police here in our state. Now in a bid to create panic among voters to reap political dividends in the upcoming Assembly elections, Trinamool Congress along with I-PAC forced BLOs and other officials on SIR duty to make mistakes so that they are called to the hearings,” the BJP leader said.
–IANS
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