Kolkata, Feb 21 (PTI) Senior TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee on Saturday alleged a “triple violation” of statutory provisions and Supreme Court directives by the Election Commission in the conduct of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voters’ list in West Bengal.
In a post on X, the TMC national general secretary claimed that Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) are unable to monitor the work of Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) on the ECINet portal.
This contravenes “Sections 13B and 13C of the Representation of the People Act”, which provide that electoral rolls shall be prepared and revised by the EROs and that AEROs assist them, Banerjee said.
The TMC MP further claimed that this also runs contrary to the Supreme Court’s orders, dated February 9 and February 20, which, he said, stipulate that final decisions on inclusion in the voter list must be taken by EROs and that claims under the “Logical Discrepancy/Unmapped” category are to be adjudicated through a quasi-judicial process by the EROs – respectively.
Banerjee also alleged that the issue violates the Election Commission’s order “No. 23/2025-ERS (Vol. II) dated June 24, 2025,” which states that the ERO of each assembly constituency shall be responsible for ensuring that no eligible citizen is left out and no ineligible person is included.
Describing the issue as a “triple violation”, the Trinamool Congress leader claimed that it could pave the way for “arbitrary and unlawful deletion of voters at the discretion of AEROs”.
He alleged that when the matter was communicated to the West Bengal chief electoral officer through the district election officers, it received a “dismissive response”, which he termed “unbecoming of a constitutional office”.
Banerjee asserted that no authority has the right to interfere with the democratic rights of voters in Bengal and said those responsible would be held accountable “in the court of law and in the court of the people”.
There was no immediate response from the Election Commission on the charges. PTI SUS BDC
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