Leader of Opposition in the Bengal Legislative Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, reiterated his claim of defeating Mamata Banerjee at her citadel Bhowanipore, as he rolled out a list of complaints against the ruling Trinamul and its strategy adviser I-PAC.
“I have defeated her once. If she goes to Metiabruz, it will be difficult to take on AIMIM or ISF. But if she contests from Bhowanipore, I will defeat her again,” Suvendu told the media on Monday after submitting a deputation at the state Chief Electoral Officer’s office.
Suvendu came armed with a list of complaints against Trinamool and I-PAC.
“I-PAC is controlling the booth-level officers (BLOs) in the state. We have demanded before the EC that a thoroughly sanitised voters’ list should be prepared,” said Suvendu.
Suvendu has alleged these names were included between 26 November and 28 November.
“We want these entries to be audited by the Special Roll Observer (SRO),” Suvendu demanded. “The district electoral officers and others are working on the instructions of the state administration. The BLOs are under pressure from I-PAC to generate OTPs for entry into the electoral rolls.”
Suvendu has claimed the number of dead voters, duplicate and permanently migrated voters in Bengal would be around 1.25crore.
“The BLOs are under pressure to ensure these 1.25 crore excess voters are not deleted from the electoral rolls after the SIR process is completed,” he said.
Several BJP leaders, including Suvendu, have claimed names of at least one crore voters would be deleted once the SIR process is completed.
The Election Commission has appointed retired IAS officer Subrata Gupta as the SRO for the SIR exercise in Bengal.
Gupta went to South 24-Parganas Falta on Sunday to review the SIR process.
The BJP leader alleged that their party representatives were not invited to the meeting with SRO Subrata Gupta.
A section of the BLOs owing allegiance to the Trinamool shouted slogans against Suvendu and the BJP leaders on their arrival at the CEO’s office.
The BLOs have been protesting outside the CEO’s office for a week demanding better facilities and extension of the SIR process. The commission had on Sunday announced a week’s extension to the SIR process.