Kolkata, Nov. 2 -- Mamata Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra on Monday questioned the Election Commission's handling of appeals against voters cleared during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, alleging that attempts to delete eligible voters were being exposed constituency by constituency.
"All 'vote chori' in Bengal being exposed seat by seat. Shameless Subrata Gupta now says he knew nothing of 16 lakh appeals filed by the CEO office to delete voters. Vote Chor Manoj Agarwal now sitting in CS chair has to answer who did this," Moitra said.
Her remarks followed a report in an English daily which found that in Hemtabad Assembly constituency in Uttar Dinajpur district, the Election Commission filed appeals against 15,381 voters whom judicial officers had cleared during the adjudication process. This constituted 44.8 per cent of the 34,327 voters found eligible by the judges.
Of particular concern were 599 appeals filed on April 5, a day before the publication of the 12th and final supplementary list on April 6, which confirmed the voters' eligibility. All 599 voters had Muslim names.
The report also found that 12,758 of the 13,776 appeals carrying identification numbers were filed in a single batch on the evening of April 5. Overall, 97.7 per cent of the voters challenged by the EC in Hemtabad had Muslim names. Of the 52,542 voters placed under adjudication, judicial officers cleared 34,327 and excluded 18,215. The EC challenged 15,381 cleared voters across 249 of the constituency's 257 polling stations.
Moitra demanded accountability from Manoj Agarwal, who was the Chief Electoral Officer during the SIR exercise and is currently the state's Chief Secretary.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.