The BJP apprehends that Bengal will witness major law-and-order problems once the Election Commission releases the final electoral rolls on Saturday, citing Mamata Banerjee's recent claim that 1.2 crore names have been deleted from the voter list.
Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the Opposition, on Friday asked the Election Commission to take precautionary measures before the publication of the final electoral rolls and alleged that plans were afoot for arson at various block development officers' offices.
"There are plans to set fire to BDO offices in several places. I have information about this. I will request the CEO (chief electoral officer) and the state observer to transfer all information to secure locations. Earlier, you have seen what happened in Chakulia (in North Dinajpur) and in Jalangi in Murshidabad district," said Adhikari.
He requested people not to indulge in such acts and said central forces would reach the state before the publication of the final voter list. "I think those whose names do not appear on the voter list on the 28th (Saturday) should not create trouble. A large number of central forces have already arrived. After the 28th, you will clearly see the anarchy that we are apprehending. Perhaps that is why the Union government or the Election Commission has already sent 248 companies of forces," added the Nandigram MLA.
The EC had already announced that the final list would clearly feature the names which were deleted and those which were being "adjudicated".
According to a Supreme Court order, the EC has to publish the final electoral roll on Saturday. However, the court has also paved the way for supplementary lists with additional names to be published after February 28, once judicial officers have cleared those voters from the pending “logical discrepancies” list. There are over 60 lakh names pending verification in the "logical discrepancies" category.
The chief minister had on Wednesday expressed fear that 1.2 crore voters' names would not feature on the final list, which would be published on Saturday.
The BJP claimed that Mamata’s statement was a mode of provocation for law-and-order issues.
"The person provoking an runruly situation is Mamata Banerjee. She has already started making provocative statements and will continue doing so over the next few days," Adhikari said, requesting people not to fall prey to such provocation.
"She has disturbed the peace many times through provocation. She disrupted peace by equating the CAA with the NRC. She has been calling the SIR an NRC from the very beginning," he added.
Although Adhikari believes that the central forces are being deployed in anticipation of law-and-order troubles even before the election announcement, many BJP leaders are unsure whether the forces will be used properly, as they will remain under the supervision of state police.
"As the final list will be released tomorrow, different anti-India forces may try to create law-and-order issues. We request the Election Commission to take action. However, we are not sure about the proper use of central forces, as they would be under the supervision of the state police," the Union minister of state, Sukanta Majumdar, said on Friday.
Mamata had said she would stand by all citizens who would lose their voting rights and whose names did not feature in the final electoral rolls.
The CPM also expressed concern that many genuine voters' names would not feature in the final rolls and threatened to launch a movement if that happened.
"We will not tolerate deletion of names from the electoral rolls like a backdoor NRC. If the names of genuine voters are deleted, we will certainly take to the streets with a bigger movement," CPM state secretary Md Salim said.
The Trinamool Congress, however, asked how BJP leaders could anticipate a law-and-order crisis even before the list was published. "How can the BJP anticipate that something will happen before the Election Commission publishes the rolls? I request them to keep quiet, as there will be no law-and-order problem in our state," said state finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya.