Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday asked party functionaries to open assistance camps near every hearing centre of the special intensive revision (SIR) and asked booth-level agents (BLAs) to ensure not a single bona fide voter’s name was removed from the final electoral rolls due on February 14.

“We should have an assistance camp near every hearing centre. BLAs should be present at the hearing centres. If officials of the commission (Election Commission) do not allow them, the party will take up the matter legally,” said a senior Trinamool leader, quoting Abhishek in the meeting in which over 1.2 lakh party leaders and BLAs participated virtually.

The Trinamool Congress national general secretary's instructions came at a time when the state has witnessed a series of incidents involving the harassment of elderly and physically challenged people attending SIR hearings, following the EC's decision to issue summons to around 32 lakh voters in Bengal.

The hearing process, which began on Friday, will continue till February 7. Abhishek asked the party’s rank and file not to leave the ground till the process was over, alleging that the EC wanted to remove names of thousands of electors.

On Sunday, a booth-level officer (BLO), Haradhan Mondal, also the headmaster of a primary school in Bankura’s Ranibandh, committed suicide, leaving behind a note that blamed the inhuman workload.

Abhishek took to his X handle to slam the EC. "The death toll keeps mounting. Another BLO appointed and engaged by the @ECISVEEP has taken his own life under the inhuman pressure of a HURRIED, CHAOTIC and POLITICALLY-MOTIVATED SIR process. Shri Haradhan Mondal of 249 Ranibandh AC, Part No. 206, died by suicide. In his suicide note, he explicitly held inhuman nature of the task responsible for his decision," he wrote.

"Over 50 lives have already been lost to panic, anxiety, exhaustion and fear engineered by a voter-cleansing operation designed for BJP’s electoral gain. And as for the BJP, if people drop dead from fatigue, despair or terror, it is an acceptable collateral cost, a convenient footnote in their power play. History is watching. Bengal will not forgive and Bengal will not forget," he said.

A source said chief minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew asked party workers to reach out to all electors summoned for hearings in their areas. If anyone does not turn up, workers should reach out to their doorstep and bring them to the hearing centre.

When the SIR was announced, following Abhishek's instructions, Trinamool leaders opened thousands of assistance booths in villages and towns across Bengal to help voters fill out enumeration forms.

On Sunday, Abhishek praised these efforts and urged party workers to treat the second round of SIR as a “war-like” situation.

He underscored the plight of senior citizens and announced that a Trinamool team would visit the office of the chief electoral officer Manoj Agarwal in Calcutta to ask why elderly people were being summoned physically for hearings when doorstep verification could have been the humane option.

Abhishek said those working outside Bengal should not be forced to attend hearings physically and be allowed to participate in the process through video-conferencing.

He asked BLAs not to follow any verbal missive from Election Commission officials and alleged that EC officials were trying to take measures "unofficially" through WhatsApp texts.

Abhishek said he would meet chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on December 31 in Delhi to raise the issue of "1.36 crore voters" with “logical discrepancies".

He told party workers that according to him, the BJP, with the EC's help, had registered new voters in Delhi ahead of its Assemby polls. He instructed the party’s rank and file to verify every new entry on the rolls and flag complaints if any name in their area appeared doubtful.

Abhishek’s virtual meeting came a day before Union home minister Amit Shah’s three-day visit to Bengal. Shah is scheduled to arrive in Calcutta on Monday evening. A BJP source said Shah was likely to raise the issue of Trinamool's objection to the SIR to claim that Bengal ruling party's sought to retain fake voters and infiltrators on the rolls.

Shah is expected to hold meetings with BJP leaders, including booth-level functionaries from all 144 wards of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, and a coordination meeting with RSS leaders.