‘Blood on his hands…’: TMC’s BIG allegation against CEC Gyanesh Kumar amid Bengal SIR, claims 40 died due to…

Bengal SIR: Amid the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter list in West Bengal, the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has claimed at least 40 people have died in the state due to SIR-related issues, and accused Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of having “blood on his hands”.

‘Blood on his hands’

A 10-member TMC delegation led by TMC Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien, met the full bench of the Election Commission on Friday, and said the party raised five questions, but claimed that CEC Gyanesh Kumar did not give any answers.

“We started the meeting by stating that the CEC has blood on his hands. We raised five questions. After this, Kalyan Banerjee, Mahua Moitra, and Mamata Bala Thakur spoke and shared whatever they had to in about 40 minutes. Then the CEC spoke uninterrupted for one hour. We were also not interrupted while we spoke, but we did not receive any answer to any of our five questions,” O’Brien told reporters after the meeting.

TMC says not opposed to SIR but…

O’Brien asserted that the TMC is not opposed to the concept of SIR, but is “strongly opposed to the unplanned manner in which the CEC and EC are going about the job”, and said the SIR exercise is “completely unplanned and heartless”.

The delegation also consisted of Lok Sabha MPs Mahua Moitra, Satabdi Roy, Kalyan Banerjee, Pratima Mondal, Sajda Ahmed, and Rajya Sabha MPs Dola Sen, Mamata Thakur, Saket Gokhale, and Prakash Chik Barik.

Moitra said the delegation shared with the CEC a list of 40 people whose deaths, they alleged, were linked to the SIR process. The commission, however, dismissed it as mere allegations, the Lok Sabha MP claimed.

Bengal SIR deaths

The TMC’s allegations come amid reports of several deaths, including suicides, allegedly related to the SIR exercise in West Bengal. Earlier this month, a 27-year-old woman and her minor daughter allegedly attempted suicide in Hooghly district, as the woman did not receive a SIR enumeration form, and feared she would be declared an illegal and deported from the country.

The SIR is currently underway in 12 states and Union territories, including West Bengal.