Kolkata, Mar 30 (PTI) TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee on Monday met Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal and alleged that a large number of Form 6s were being submitted by the BJP to make residents of other states voters of poll-bound West Bengal.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Banerjee said people deserve to know what was happening to the state’s electoral rolls.
“We have credible information that about 30,000 Form 6s were submitted to the CEO’s office in six to seven hours today, in clear violation of Supreme Court directives,” he claimed.
Form 6 is used for the inclusion of a name in the electoral rolls for first-time voters or for shifting a voter from one constituency to another.
Banerjee claimed that a representative of a BJP leader brought a “sackful of Form 6” to the CEO’s office.
“The CEO could not provide any satisfactory reply to our query about large-scale Form 6 submissions, and we urged him to release the CCTV footage. We will not take it lying down,” he said.
Agarwal could not be reached for a comment on the allegations.
Banerjee also shared a purported video clip of the CEO Office on social media, in which stacks of paper could be seen. PTI could not verify the authenticity of the clip.
Banerjee said the SIR exercise did not detect any Bangladeshi infiltrators here, even as over 200 people were killed because of it.
“The Narendra Modi government should explain why it failed to adequately respond to the atrocities on monks like Chinmoy Prabhu in Bangladesh. Again, former Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina was given shelter in India,” he said.
“If we strictly go by the term infiltrator, which is frequently used by Modi, Shah and other BJP leaders, will they describe Hasina as an infiltrator or a refugee from Bangladesh,” he asked, adding that he had nothing against the former Bangladeshi PM staying in India.
Alleging that a national leader of the BJP had forced the CEO to accept the Form 6s by making repeated calls since Sunday night, Banerjee claimed the party had won the Maharashtra polls in a “similar fraudulent fashion” by adding 40 lakh names to that state’s electoral rolls in five months.
“We have seen similar concerns being raised in other states during elections. Bengal cannot be allowed to go down that path,” the Diamond Harbour MP said.
“This is not just about politics, it’s about protecting the integrity of our vote. This is the kind of ‘pariborton’ (changed) the BJP seeks to impose on Bengal,” he alleged.
Banerjee also claimed that the TMC was in possession of an appeal made to the EC by a Booth Level Agent of the BJP for receiving Form 6s to include names of residents from states like UP, Bihar and Jharkhand.
“The office of the CEO or any other election office cannot accept bulk forms in this way, which is in clear violation of the Supreme Court order,” he claimed.
Asked about the BJP’s charge that the demography of Bengal has changed under the TMC rule, the second in command of the ruling party alleged, “It is EC and Amit Shah who are conspiring to change the demography of Bengal by enlisting names of voters from other states.” PTI SUS SOM
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.