Kolkata, Jan 19 (IANS) Tension broke out at the office of the sub-divisional officer (headquarters) in Hooghly district of West Bengal on Monday after a group of Trinamool Congress activists, led by the party’s legislator from Chinsurah Assembly constituency Asit Majumdar, reached the premises while hearings on claims and objections on the draft voters’ list were being held.

It was reported that some of the ruling party activists even destroyed some Form-7 applications (for deletion of names of voters due to deaths and other reasons) in front of the legislator.

Although Majumdar denied being a witness to the destruction of Form-7 applications by his followers, he alleged that they had protested against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists submitting such Form-7 applications on behalf of others in an undemocratic manner.

Following the development, chaos broke out at the SDO (headquarters) office premises, and there were even scuffles between Trinamool Congress and BJP activists.

Some of the voters present on the occasion alleged that the police personnel there behaved as mute spectators, with no visible action witnessed on their part to bring the situation under control.

“How can we allow attempts to forcibly delete names of genuine voters from the voters’ list? They are snatching away people’s democratic rights. Yesterday, Union Minister of State Sukanta Majumdar said that the names of 1.26 lakh voters have been deleted from the Hooghly Lok Sabha alone. How did he know that? Are the electoral officers working as his agents?” Majumdar claimed.

The BJP’s Hooghly district leadership alleged that, from the beginning, the Trinamool Congress had been resisting submission of Form-7 applications, since the ruling party wanted names of deceased, duplicate or shifted voters retained in the voters’ list so that false voting could be done against such names on polling days.

“Today’s ruckus by the Trinamool Congress was pre-planned and in conspiracy with a section of the district administration. It is pathetic that an elected legislator of the ruling party led the hooliganism,” said district BJP leader Suresh Saha.

–IANS

src/pgh