EC not acting on complaints against BJP leaders, poll panel now saffron camp associate: Abhishek

Kolkata, Nov 3 (PTI) Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Monday alleged that the EC has not taken steps against some BJP leaders who are threatening Booth Level Officers (BLOs) on the SIR issue, though the ruling TMC has called for action against them.

Banerjee alleged that the poll panel has become an associate of the BJP.

The TMC MP was talking to reporters after meeting former Kolkata Municipal Corporation Mayor Sovan Chatterjee and his friend Baisakhi Banerjee, after they were taken back to the party.

“Six people had died in West Bengal out of fear that their names would be omitted from the electoral rolls during the SIR. The EC and BJP are responsible for pushing bona fide citizens to the brink of death by instilling fear and uncertainty among the people about deportation,” Banerjee claimed.

"Several BJP leaders have issued threats to BLOs who need to perform their duties as government officials working under the EC. We have complained to the EC against them, attaching clippings of their statements. But the EC is yet to take any action against them," he said.

Banerjee, considered number two in the party, alleged that the EC has become an associate of the BJP and people are losing hope about the poll panel’s impartiality.

To a question, he said he would appeal to the BLOs to contact the state administration apart from the EC if they faced any problem during field visits for enumeration.

Referring to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent interview in which he had said those who were not born in India would not have the right to vote, Banerjee said that in that case, BJP stalwart LK Advani and Union minister Santanu Thakur fit the bill.

“Will Advani and Thakur be labelled as illegal immigrants? By this logic, the entire Matua community, whom the BJP had shamelessly tried to manipulate with false promises of citizenship, are all foreigners," the TMC leader said.

Many members of the Matua, a Hindu refugee community, have migrated from Bangladesh over decades, often without proper documentation. The TMC and BJP are long locked in a tug-of-war for their support. There is a possibility that they would lose voting rights during the SIR.

“Even BJP leaders are protesting against the bid to disenfranchise members of the Matua community, as they can see the situation. Union minister Santanu Thakur is not able to convince his relative and own party MLA Subrata Thakur, who can see through this dangerous game plan of Shah," Banerjee claimed.

Both Santanu Thakur and Subrata Thakur belong to the Matua community.

"Every person in Bengal must see through this dangerous game. The BJP's endgame is to disenfranchise and delegitimise millions in Bengal. As we have pointed out repeatedly, the SIR is NRC through the back door,” the TMC leader said.

He said that the TMC will provide legal assistance if any bona fide citizen thinks that his or her name may be deleted from the voter list during the SIR.

The Diamond Harbour MP asked people not to rush to CAA camps organised by the BJP, claiming that Bengalis in Assam in the same situation were sent to detention camps.

"Let Amit Shah give an undertaking that those attending camps will be given citizenship. We have set up designated war rooms in every constituency to come to the aid of any harassed bona fide citizen," Banerjee said.

If one eligible voter's name is omitted, the TMC will not sit idle, he asserted.

He claimed that Foreigners’ Tribunals from BJP-governed Assam issued letters to genuine Indian citizens of the Rajbanshi community in West Bengal’s Coochbehar and Jalpaiguri districts as "part of the agenda to target and deport Bengali-speaking citizens.

Banerjee also came down heavily on the BJP government at the Centre for deporting bona fide Indian citizens Sonali Khatun, branding her as Bangladeshi, though her parents’ names figure in the 2002 electoral rolls of the Murarai constituency in Birbhum district.

"Despite the Calcutta High Court proclaiming she is an Indian, no initiative has been taken by the Union home ministry to facilitate her safe and smooth return," he said.

Banerjee claimed that after the debacle in the 2021 assembly polls, the Narendra Modi government had stopped allocating funds under the 100-day work scheme to Bengal and welcomed the recent Supreme Court judgement, which paved the way for allocation of the long overdue money.

Turning to claims by the BJP about infiltration of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, Banerjee said the state does not share a border with that country and asked why the EC left out the north-eastern states having a boundary with Myanmar for rolling out the SIR exercise.

"From 400 Lok Sabha seats in 2019, they (BJP) have come down to 240. I challenge that the number of seats will go down below 100 in the next general elections and their assembly seat tally (In West Bengal) will reduce drastically in the 2026 polls," he claimed. PTI SUS NN