SIR Row: Election Commission slams Mamata Banerjee in Supreme Court, accuses West Bengal CM of violence, intimidation

New Delhi: The Supreme Court is hearing a case regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in West Bengal. Recently, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee herself appeared before the court to present her arguments. Now, the Election Commission has filed a counter-affidavit in court on Friday, alleging violence, intimidation, and obstruction of election officials during the SIR process.

What did Election Commission tell Supreme Court?

The commission claims that the state government is not registering FIRs based on complaints from Booth Level Officers (BLOs) regarding threats against election officials. The commission states that West Bengal is the only state where election officials are facing obstacles during the SIR process, while the process is proceeding smoothly in other states.

According to a Live Law report, the Election Commission has also accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of spreading fear and giving inflammatory speeches. These speeches have created an atmosphere of intimidation for election officials. Several people have written letters to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) requesting to be relieved of their duties in the SIR process.

The Election Commission also mentioned an incident from November 24 last year, in which a mob attempted to enter and vandalize the CEO's office, and then locked it from the outside. The commission says that no FIR was registered in this case, and no arrests were made.

What is Mamata Banerjee’s stance?

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been against the SIR process from the beginning. She claims that it is being used to remove a large number of voters from the electoral rolls before the assembly elections, which would harm the TMC. In the affidavit, the Election Commission stated that Bengal is the only state where the CEO has been provided with Y+ category security. Several other top officials have also been provided with security.

Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress on Friday accused the Election Commission of India of large-scale deletion of names from the electoral rolls in West Bengal, alleging that these names were removed through "a mysterious faulty software" used by the election body. Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale said that even the commission's officials have now admitted that the names of genuine voters were removed from the electoral rolls due to a software glitch. He claimed that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the party's national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee had been raising this issue for several months.