WB BJP alleges BLOs appointed for SIR have Trinamool links

The West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has alleged that several Booth Level Officers (BLOs) appointed for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls have links with the Trinamool Congress.

In a letter to the State’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal, BJP leader Sishir Bajoria said that “since West Bengal will be poll bound in a few months there will not [be] any chance to correct the wrong done by the BLOs who clearly have a party affiliation”.

Mr. Bajoria added that despite the party bringing the issue to the attention of the respective District Election Officers (DEOs) and “your good self, the ongoing saga of improper appointment of BLOs continues unabated.”

“Once again, we provide you list of such improper appointment[s], in most cases where the incumbent BLO is directly a Trinamool activist/worker or linked through his/her spouse,” the letter stated.

The BJP enclosed a list of 13 BLOs, including those from Nandigram and Nandakumar, alleging their association with the ruling party. The party also attached social media posts purportedly showing these links.

Responding to the allegations, Trinamool leaders said there are over 80,000 BLOs in the State and acknowledged that some may support the ruling party. However, they maintained that there was nothing wrong if the officers discharged their duties impartially and “without fear or favour.”

The door-to-door enumeration process under SIR is scheduled to begin on November 4 and will continue for a month. On the same day, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, along with Trinamool leaders, will hold a protest in Kolkata against the SIR exercise.

Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress accused the BJP of attempting to “turn Bengalis into foreigners in their own land.” The party alleged that the BJP had targeted the Matua community, a sect of Hindu Namashudras who migrated from Bangladesh, and asserted that “citizenship or the right to vote is not a privilege handed down by the BJP.”

“@BJP4India may have targeted the Matua community first, but the danger they pose isn’t confined to one community, one sect, one class, or one caste. This is a threat to all of Bengal. BJP is on a mission to turn Bengalis into foreigners in their own land, to make us pay for what has always been ours. Our citizenship, our right to vote is not a privilege handed down by the BJP. It is our constitutional right, not the ancestral property of @narendramodi or @AmitShah,” the Trinamool posted on social media.

Amid the exchange between the two parties, Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, likened the SIR process to “pouring carbolic acid inside a snake hole,” saying it was “the right medicine applied by the Election Commission to chase away the snakes so that they can be caught and expelled.”