Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: The escalating showdown between the West Bengal government and the election commission over the intensive roll revision shows no sign of cooling, with chief minister Mamata Banerjee accusing the poll body of being “run by a political party” in an apparent allusion to the ruling BJP.In a bitter attack on the election commission, Mamata Didi called the body a “Tughlaqi Commission”. The term “Tughlaqi” comes from the 14th-century Delhi ruler Muhammad bin Tughlaq, who is remembered for making sudden, impractical, and poorly planned decisions.Alleging that the election commission was treating ordinary people like terrorists, CM Mamata claimed the poll body has been defying the Supreme Court orders on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and “targeting voters and undermining democracy”.Mamata also made an explosive claim amid the ongoing SIR in the poll-bound West Bengal, saying a woman functionary in the BJP IT cell “removed 58 lakh voters’ names in Bengal using AI”.The TMC chief said in Bengal, “160 people lost their lives due to SIR anxiety, work-related pressure”.Mamata said if the election commission “penalises” Bengal government officers, her government would “100 per cent protect them”.Her remarks come a day after the election commission, in an unprecedented step, suspended seven assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs) engaged in the SIR exercise in Bengal over “serious misconduct, dereliction of duty and misuse of statutory powers”.The commission also directed the Bengal chief secretary to ensure that disciplinary proceedings are initiated against them by their respective cadre-controlling authorities and asked to be apprised in this regard. Unlike on earlier occasions when the commission asked the Bengal government to suspend the “errant” EROs and AEROs, the EC this time took recourse to its powers under Section 13CC of the R P Act 1950 and the terms of settlement arrived at between the commission and the Centre.According to sources, it was observed that all these officers, during scrutiny of cases parked for final publication, cleared multiple cases despite non-submission of documents and inconsistencies in the mapping and eligibility of electors, and failed to take corrective action, thereby approving ineligible cases and misusing their statutory powers.Last week, the Supreme Court said that it would not allow any “impediment” in the ongoing special intensive revision of electoral rolls in states. The top court was hearing a group of petitions concerning the West Bengal SIR, including a plea by Mamata Banerjee that, among other issues, challenges the manner in which voters have been categorised in the “logical discrepancy” list.
