Kolkata: Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday is learnt to have directed the party’s Booth Level Agents (BLAs) through a virtual meeting to intensify ground-level work to assist people whose names have been dropped from the electoral rolls following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
Meanwhile, Banerjee, who is also the Diamond Harbour MP, is scheduled to visit Delhi on December 31 to meet the Chief Election Commissioner. According to Trinamool sources, he will seek clarity on how many of the deleted names belong to alleged infiltrators and demand the publication of transparent data. Banerjee has alleged that genuine residents of West Bengal are being harassed due to the large-scale deletions.
Addressing a virtual meeting of BLAs, Banerjee reportedly said that over 5.8 million names had been deleted after the SIR process and that the Election Commission was currently carrying out the scrutiny phase. He described the situation as a serious problem for ordinary people and asked party workers to stand firmly beside those affected.
Banerjee announced that Trinamool Congress would set up assistance camps close to SIR scrutiny centres across West Bengal.
Party leaders and workers were instructed to help people at these camps during the scrutiny process, including in the presence of election officials, so that affected voters could complete necessary formalities.
Issuing a strong organisational message, Banerjee warned that leaders and workers who failed to give “100 per cent effort” in this exercise would have to step aside. He said there was no need to remain in any post if one did not work for the people at a time when they were facing difficulties. The Trinamool national general secretary also said the party would take up the issue institutionally.
A Trinamool delegation will visit the Election Commission office on Monday to register protests over what the party claims is harassment of genuine voters during the scrutiny process.