– Shabana Javed
Kolkata: The Election Commission has begun distributing enumeration forms across West Bengal as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process of the voter list. On Wednesday, a Booth Level Officer (BLO) visited the office adjacent to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s residence to deliver the forms. However, on Thursday, the Chief Minister took to social media to announce that she will not fill out the form until every person in Bengal has done so. Banerjee wrote, “Until every person in Bengal fills the form, I myself have not filled any form and will not do so.”
Clarifying the situation, she added, the BLO came to our neighbourhood to perform his official duties. In line with that, he came to my residence, inquired about the number of voters in the household, and handed over the form.”
The Chief Minister emphasised that she did not personally receive the form.
Banerjee, who is MLA from the Bhowanipur Assembly constituency, is registered under booth number 77, with the polling station located at Mitra Institution School, near Harish Park. She regularly casts her vote at this booth.
Since Wednesday night, opposition parties, including the BJP, have alleged that despite her previous opposition to the SIR process, the CM had accepted the form from the BLO. In response, Banerjee clarified on Thursday that such claims were “completely false, misleading, and deliberate propaganda.”
On Tuesday, Mamata Banerjee led a massive protest march from Red Road to Jorasanko Thakurbari against what she described as the “SIR scare.” During the rally, she alleged that the SIR process was a “strategy to introduce NRC through the backdoor.”
Chief Minister has launched a full-fledged movement against the SIR, with plans for the Trinamool Congress to take the agitation to Delhi, as announced by Abhishek Banerjee. They believe the recent “false reports” about her accepting the form were part of an attempt to undermine that movement.
