TMC starts outreach scheme Banglar Vote Raksha for voters amid SIR in Bengal

Amidst the ongoing exercise of Special Intensive Revision (SIR), the Trinamool Congress has launched a major outreach programme Banglar Vote Raksha (Protection to voters of Bengal) to reach out to the electorate of the State during the revision of the voter list.

Describing Banglar Vote Raksha as a citizen-support and voter-awareness campaign, the Trinamool Congress outreach focuses on preventing wrongful deletions and assisting new voters who wish to be added to the roll.

As a part of the campaign the Trinamool Congress has set up over 5,000 voter assistance camps at ward and anchal levels across the State. From the day of launch of the initiative on November 4, people have started flooding these camps seeking assistance to fill up SIR enumeration forms.

Under the initiative volunteers are conducting door-to-door outreach to help citizens complete enumeration forms and Form 6 enrolments for new voters, with the door to door campaign tracked digitally on the Didir Doot App. Trinamool Congress leader Kunal Ghosh while speaking on the initiative said that out of 12 States where the SIR is being held the Banglar Vote Raksha is one and only initiative by a political party to assist the electorate on such a large scale.

“Amidst the concern and confusion which is being impressed upon the people [under the garb] of the SIR by the BJP, the Trinamool Congress is doing a door to door campaign and standing by the people as a friend during the crisis,” Mr. Ghosh said.

The initiative comes amidst protest by the ruling party including Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who hit the streets in Kolkata on the very day the scheme was launched. On November 6, Ms. Banerjee also added that until each and every one from Bengal fills up the form, she will not fill up the enumeration form.

The development also assumes significance amidst reports of the Opposition parties not being able to provide booth level agents (BLAs) for the SIR. There are about 80,000 polling booths in the State and the Opposition parties have not been able to provide BLAs on half of the polling booths.

The Trinamool Congress on Friday (November 7) alleged inconsistency between the chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar’s recent remarks and the written instructions issued to booth level officers (BLOs) for the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal.

In a letter to the State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal Trinamool Congress leader and State’s Minister Aroop Biswas said, “The CEC had stated that while filling up the enumeration form, a person may insert either their own details [if present in the previous SIR list] or those of a relative, specifically mentioning the term ‘chacha’ [uncle], thereby implying that mapping through uncles or other blood relatives is permissible.”

The Trinamool Congress claimed that this “directly contradicts the written instructions issued to BLOs and the BLO software interface, both of which restrict the ‘relative’ category strictly to parents and grandparents only. About 2.72 crore enumeration forms were distributed in West Bengal by 4 pm on Friday ( November 7).