Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the Opposition, on Tuesday accused Mamata Banerjee of intimidating booth level officers (BLOs) and urged the Election Commission of India to take cognisance of her alleged threat.

The BJP leader’s statement came on a day when the chief minister, in a slight shift of stance, urged common people to question poll officials if their names were deleted from the voters’ list.

As the ruling party in Bengal and the principal Opposition party started putting pressure on the poll panel ahead of the proposed special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state, it appeared that the exercise, if carried out, would be at the centre of a controversy in the next few months.

On Monday, the chief minister had asked the BLOs to ensure that no name was deleted from the voters’ list in Bengal, reminding them that they were state government employees who worked with the EC only during the elections.

Pointing out the chief minister’s comment, Adhikari wrote a letter to the chief election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, urging him to initiate an inquiry to ascertain the intent of the chief minister’s comments and their impact on the independence of the BLOs and the electoral process.

Adhikari also urged Kumar to ensure that the BLOs and other officials could perform their responsibilities without any influence or fear of the state government.

“Mamata Banerjee’s assertion that BLOs are merely State Govt Employees and her attempt to intimidate and manipulate the electoral process by instructing BLOs to ensure that no names are removed from Voter List, is clearly an unauthorized attempt to dilute the Voter Lists for political gain. This is unacceptable,” Adhikari wrote in his X-handle on Tuesday.

While the BJP tried to mount pressure on the EC to ensure that the SIR was carried out properly in Bengal, the chief minister on Tuesday urged the common people to come forward and ensure that their names figured in the voters’ list, alleging that the Centre was trying to implement the NRC using the SIR route.

“Everybody should come forward and register their names in the voters’ list afresh.... Efforts are being made to implement NRC. Every genuine voter should remember this,” Mamata said during a government distribution programme in Birbhum’s Illambazar on Tuesday.

She also asked the common people to question the BLOs if anybody’s name was deleted.

“If anybody deletes your name, you should protest. You should ask the BLOs why your name was deleted. All students who have attained the age of 18 should register their names in the list,” said the chief minister.

Sources in the state administration said that although Mamata had toned down her comments, she kept up the pressure on the EC in a different way — this time by asking people to protest if any genuine voter’s name was deleted.

Sources in the BJP said that the party was banking on the SIR of voters’ list in Bengal as it believed that a huge number of “ghost” voters’ names existed in the electoral rolls, which had been intensively revised last in 2002.

As a seasoned politician, Adhikari knew that the BLOs would play the most crucial role during the proposed intensive revision as they would identify the dead, shifted and untraceable voters at the grassroots level.

“Adhikari has realised that if the BLOs work under pressure from the chief minister, many bogus voters’ names will continue to figure in the voters’ list. This is why he is putting counter-pressure on the chief minister,” said a BJP leader.

BJP insiders also said it was evident that there were several bogus voters’ names on the electoral rolls when a special summary revision was carried out ahead of the bypolls in Nadia’s Kaliganj Assembly segment in April.

“In Kaliganj only, nearly 8,000 names were deleted from the voters’ list. And no political party had opposed the move, as dead and permanently shifted voters’ names had been deleted from the list. This shows that a huge number of names will be deleted from the voters’ list once the SIR is carried out. The chief minister is opposing the move as her party uses these bogus names to cast proxy votes,” said a BJP leader.