Violence linked to the special intensive revision (SIR) of poll rolls surfaced again on Saturday, the final hearing day, when some Trinamool Congress supporters allegedly stormed the Baduria block development office in North 24-Parganas and assaulted an assistant electoral registration officer (AERO) over a purported bid to drop valid voters by calling them dead.

According to officials, trouble began after local Trinamool leaders learnt that BJP leader Dipak Mondal had submitted Form 7 applications seeking exclusion of 33 voters on the grounds that they were dead, and another 12 as duplicate voters.

All these voters are from booth 45 in Uttar Byanagram, under Baduria block's Chandipur panchayat.

On Saturday, angered by what they described as a motivated attempt to disenfranchise voters, some local Trinamool leaders brought the 33 voters — described in the BJP leader's complaint as “dead” — to the hearing centre to present them before the Baduria block development officer.

Tension escalated when hundreds of party supporters, along with the voters and their relatives, allegedly entered the office premises angrily, harassing AERO Sanjoy Debnath, who had reportedly received the Form 7 application from BJP leader Mondal.

The group accused the Election Commission and the BJP of attempting to delete voter names by falsely declaring them dead.

AERO Debnath was allegedly abused, pushed and pulled by his shirt by the angry crowd till block development officer Partha Hazra intervened and brought the situation under control. The disruption triggered panic among officials and common people, with hundreds waiting in queues for their turn at the hearing.

The incident revived memories of attacks reported last month at block development offices in Itahar, Farakka, Chakulia and Sandeshkhali.

Trinamool Congress leader Mehboob Alam said: “A BJP leader, through Form 7, sought the exclusion of 33 voters by claiming they were dead and another 12 as duplicate voters. This complaint is entirely false, as all 33 individuals are genuine voters and are alive. So we took them with us to physically produce them before the BDO as evidence. We protested against the role of the AERO and demanded action against him and the BJP leader.”

Several elderly voters whose names figured in the exclusion plea also joined the protest. Md Abdul Rashid, one of the voters listed as deceased, said: “It is a conspiracy to harass elderly people like me for opposing the BJP. So I walked into the BDO office to prove that I am alive.”

Form 7 is a statutory application used to object to the inclusion of a name in the electoral roll or to seek deletion on grounds such as death, shifting of residence, duplication of entries or a voter being missing from the given address. Any individual may submit the form, making it a key instrument in the SIR exercise, though officials stress that Form 7 submissions are subject to verification.

Trinamool described Saturday’s incident as a spontaneous public outburst against the "collusion" between the Election Commission and the BJP.

Party spokesperson Arup Chakraborty said: “The EC has pushed innocent people to the brink of omission. It has become a tool in the hands of the BJP and is obliging the party at the Centre. The attempt to exclude voters through Form 7 is a deliberate game plan of the BJP aimed at robbing people of their voting rights.”

The BJP, however, accused the ruling party of unleashing violence at the block office. Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, sharing a video of the incident on social media platforms, accused Trinamool supporters of vandalism and assault of the AERO. “Violence by Trinamool Congress lumpens continues unabated. It is already well established that the state has no law and order. Now, amid the SIR exercise, the state government has further abandoned the rule of law only to ensure fake entries in the voters’ list and protect the interests of false voters,” Adhikari wrote.

Baduria block development officer Hazra said the mob entered the office and “created problems,” adding that “legal steps” had begun. Allegations of attempts to exclude living voters would be examined, Hazra said.

A North 24-Parganas administrative official said that inquiries into complaints submitted through Form 7 were on. “Nothing is final. If any complaint submitted through Form 7 is found to be incorrect, legal action may be initiated against the complainant,” he said.