EC should protect BLOs, safeguard voters' rights: TMC MP

New Delhi, Nov 24 (PTI) Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale on Monday said that if the Election Commission of India is "genuinely independent", it should protect the booth-level officers, safeguard the rights of voters, and be transparent about the Special Intensive Revision process.

In a post on X, the TMC's Rajya Sabha MP said that while the party is not opposed to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), it is strongly opposed to the "rushed, haphazard and opaque manner" in which the exercise was being done in West Bengal.

TMC has been vocal in its criticism of the poll panel over reported incidents of suicide and death of Booth Level Officers (BLO), particularly in West Bengal.

"Is cruelty essential for doing SIR? Across Bengal and the rest of India, BLOs tasked with SIR are dying of exhaustion or by suicide. A process that should be given a few months is being hastily done in 30 days," Gokhale said.

"We've been clear: we have no problem with the purpose of SIR, which is to clean up the voter list. We are, however, strongly opposed to the rushed, haphazard, and opaque manner in which it is being done in Bengal," he said.

"SIR duty should not be a death sentence for BLOs," he said, adding, "SIR should not become a pretext for deleting legitimate voters." Gokhale pointed out that the SIR was not done in Delhi, Haryana and Maharashtra, the three states that went to polls after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

"Why then is the ECI rushing to do it within 30 days in Bengal?" he asked.

He said the BLOs should be allowed to work without stress, and people should be given enough time to understand the process and locate their documents.

"If the ECI is genuinely independent, it should protect BLOs, safeguard the rights of voters, and be transparent about the SIR process," he said.

"But the actions of the ECI in Bengal show that "cleaning the voter list" is just a facade. In reality, the way SIR is being done shows that the clear agenda is to create panic and rig the system to benefit the BJP," he added. PTI AO AO RUK RUK