All-Party Meeting Held With West Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal Over Voter List Concerns

Kolkata: An all party meeting took place at the state election commission office with West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal.

After the meeting the representatives of Trinamool Congress (TMC) and CPI (M) said that they have questioned the authority of Election Commission of India (ECI) to determine the citizenship status of any individual.

Minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim said, “TMC will not sit quiet if any genuine voters name is deleted. We will protest at the national capital.”

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shishir Bajoria mentioned, “Earlier TMC used to say that they will not allow SIR in the state but now they are saying that they will protest if any genuine voters name is deleted. They (TMC) had changed their stand.”

CEO Manoj Agarwal said that the Booth Level Officers (BLO) will visit places of the voters with enumeration form.

“There will be different QR codes for the voters. BLOs will guide the voters in filling up the form. As ordered by the Supreme Court, Aadhar card will be valid. No genuine voter's name will be deleted,” said Agarwal.

Notably, this meeting was held to discuss SIR with all the political party representatives.

TMC national secretary Abhishek Banerjee also attacked BJP over SIR.

Terming SIR as ‘Silent Invisible Rigging (SIR)’, Banerjee claimed that the saffron camp will ‘manipulate votes.’

“Initially people used to vote for the formation of the government. Now the government is choosing its voters. Five Northeast states share borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar. Then why is SIR being announced only in West Bengal and also not in Assam? In 2002 SIR exercise was done over a span of two years and this time it is being done over a span of two months. TMC will show its might if any genuine voter’s name is slashed from the list,” added Banerjee.