Kolkata: The draft electoral rolls published by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday triggered sharp political reactions, with the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) alleging errors and wrongful exclusions under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.
Surya Dey, the Trinamool councillor of Dankuni Municipality’s Ward 18, said that while checking the lists linked to the SIR exercise, he claimed his name figured among the “dead”, though he had filled and submitted his enumeration form to the booth-level officer.
A booth-wise list of the deceased and migrated voters was released ahead of West Bengal’s draft electoral rolls earlier in the day.
“I am an elected public representative. If I can be shown dead on paper while I am very much alive, imagine what can happen to ordinary voters,” Deu said.
TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh questioned the claims, alleging errors and wrongful exclusions under the SIR process. The ruling TMC has accused the process of being a conspiracy, aiming to intimidate voters. In Kolkata’s New Alipore, about 23 voters were not given enumeration forms by BLOs, and they have allegedly been shown “dead” in the draft rolls.
In a post on X, TMC said: “This is @ecisveep’s idea of a “flawless” voter list. In Bankura, a BLO discovered that his own brother’s name appeared alongside the photograph of a completely unknown woman in the draft voter list. It was detected during official verification by the Commission’s own Booth Level Officer.”
“How many genuine voters will be harassed because of the Commission’s negligence? This is an administrative farce and Bengal’s people are being forced to pay the price for it,” Trinamool added.