Trinamool Congress leaders and workers across the state swung into action on Monday to mount pressure on the Election Commission, carrying out party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee's Sunday advice to treat the hearing phase of the special intensive revision SIR as a “war-like” situation.
In many places, Trinamool functionaries visited local SIR hearing centres and demanded that party booth-level agents BLAs be let in. At least two Trinamool MLAs physically reached two hearing centres and temporarily halted the proceedings, demanding entry of BLAs.
In Magrahat of South 24-Parganas, a group of women allegedly backed by Trinamool harassed electoral roll observer C. Murugan. Protesters stopped his car while agitating against the "harassment of common people and senior citizens" and damaged the door lock of his official vehicle. The CEO’s office in Kolkata sent a detailed report along with video footage to Nirvachan Sadan on his harassment.
Trinamool denied its connection with the protest. However, video clips of the protest prompted the BJP to warn that it would not allow Assembly polls in Bengal if the SIR process was not completed properly.
“Trinamool leaders, MLAs and workers are resisting the SIR process to prevent hearings in a bid to retain fake voters in the electoral rolls.... If the SIR process is not completed properly, there will be no elections in Bengal. We will ensure it. The onus of this will be on Trinamool,” said BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya.
On Sunday, during a virtual meeting with the party’s BLAs and functionaries, Abhishek asked them to set up assistance camps near every hearing centre and instructed BLAs to be present during hearings to ensure not a single bona fide voter was removed.
Asit Majumdar, the Trinamool MLA from Hooghly’s Chinsurah, reached the Chinsurah-Mogra block office on Monday morning and stopped the hearing process at three centres for nearly two hours when election officials informed him that BLAs would not be allowed inside.
“Our leader, Abhishek Banerjee, had made it clear that BLAs must be present during the hearings. When officials told us that BLAs would not be allowed, I demanded a copy of the written instruction. They failed to produce any such document so I stopped the process,” Majumdar said.
Over 200 people summoned by the EC said the halt amounted to fresh harassment as they had come leaving their daily work and other responsibilities. The MLA conceded they had a point.
“We allowed the hearings to resume after people requested us to consider their difficulties, but warned the EC that we would return tomorrow (Tuesday). If BLAs are still not allowed or a written order is not provided, we will continue our protest,” the MLA said.
Trinamool Dhanekhali MLA Asima Patra also stopped the hearing process in her locality with the same demand, holding up the proceedings for over three hours.
“We demanded that BLAs be allowed inside. We also found many elderly and ailing people summoned for hearings. The EC allows such voters to cast their votes from their doorsteps. Then why were they summoned for physical hearings?” she asked.
In Asansol, East Burdwan and West Midnapore, Trinamool leaders reached hearing centres and staged protests demanding the presence of BLAs inside the halls.
EC directive on BLAs
Abhishek earlier said that if BLAs were not allowed during the hearings, party workers should demand written instructions from officials.
An EC source said a directive was sent to district authorities instructing that no BLA should be allowed inside hearing centres. The instruction came after Abhishek's directive on Sunday.
“We received a message from the EC on Monday morning stating that BLAs should not be allowed inside hearing centres. Accordingly, we did not permit any BLAs. Some political leaders requested permission for their agents to assist voters, but we did not entertain such requests,” said a district magistrate.
EC sources said that the instruction was issued after it was felt that the BLAs could exert pressure on the AEROs or the EROs conducting the hearing "to slide in ineligible voters".
Trinamool MP Partha Bhowmik, who met Bengal chief electoral officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal, defended Majumdar. “Whatever he did, he did to protect democracy," Bhowmik said.
Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari sought the arrest of Majumdar and others who obstructed the SIR process and central forces for peaceful hearings. He accused Trinamool of obstructing Murugan from doing his duties. "I would like to ask a direct question to Hon’ble @ECISVEEP Shri Ganesh Kumar, if you are unable to extend protection to the Officers who are entrusted with duties assigned by you and are attacked while performing their duties by going to the field and not sitting in the comfort of their own office, then how do you plan to conduct free and fair elections in West Bengal where radical elements of the TMC Party are roaming free?" Adhikari wrote on social media.
Additional reporting by Pranesh Sarkar