"Blood On Your Hands": Trinamool To Poll Body Over Booth Officials' Deaths

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Friday launched a blistering attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI), accusing Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of having "blood on his hands" for the deaths of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) in West Bengal and alleging that the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is a targeted BJP-orchestrated conspiracy to disenfranchise Bengali and minority voters in West Bengal.

There has been no official response from the EC on this allegation so far.

A 10-member high-powered TMC delegation, led by Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien, confronted CEC Gyanesh Kumar and his team for nearly two hours at Nirvachan Sadan on Ashoka Road.

The party claimed the meeting was "one-sided": TMC members spoke for 40 minutes and posed five pointed questions, but the CEC spoke uninterrupted for an hour without answering any of them.

"We started by telling the CEC he has blood on his hands," Derek O'Brien told reporters outside ECI headquarters. "We handed over a list of 38 BLOs and other officials who have died during this brutal SIR process. The Commission offered no reply to our questions - zero."

The delegation included MPs Mahua Moitra, Kalyan Banerjee, Saket Gokhale, Dola Sen, Shatabdi Roy (Satabdi Roy), Sajda Ahmed, Pratima Mondal, Mamata Bala Thakur, and Prakash Chik Baraik.

TMC's questions to the Election Commission:

1. Why is Bengal being singled out?

The TMC asked why states sharing international borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar - Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Manipur - have been completely excluded from the SIR exercise. Even Assam has been placed under a comparatively lighter "Special Revision". The party questioned whether the real objective is to challenge Bengali identity and systematically remove Bengali voters from the electoral rolls.

2. How did the voter lists become unreliable overnight?

The party pointed out that the same electoral rolls now labelled "unreliable" by the ECI were used without any objection for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and three subsequent Assembly by-elections. The TMC demanded to know how these rolls suddenly turned dubious and asked whether, if they are indeed unreliable, the current Lok Sabha should not be dissolved.

3. Who is responsible for the deaths of Booth Level Officers (BLOs)?

TMC alleged that dozens of BLOs across various states have either died or been driven to suicide due to inhuman deadlines, lack of training, and extreme pressure. The party directly asked whether the Election Commission, or Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar personally, would take responsibility, stating: "Is the blood of these avoidable deaths not on the Chief Election Commissioner's hands?"

4. Is the ECI displaying blatant partisan bias?

The Trinamool Congress claimed it has repeatedly flagged serious concerns - including the appointment of external Booth Level Agents (BLAs) and the exclusion of operators from Bangla Sahayata Kendras - but no action has been taken. In contrast, it said, any complaint raised by the BJP is addressed immediately. TMC asked whether this pattern does not prove partisan conduct that undermines the constitutional autonomy of the Election Commission.

5. Is the Election Commission functioning on BJP's instructions?

Citing examples from Bihar where Model Code of Conduct rules were allegedly twisted to benefit the BJP, and the silence of the ECI despite Bengal BJP leaders openly claiming that one crore voters would be deleted from the state's rolls, the TMC questioned whether the Election Commission has now begun operating under direct instructions from the BJP and is prepared to violate every sacred provision of electoral democracy.

No response from ECI

MP Mahua Moitra said the CEC "did not answer a single question" and instead delivered what she called a prepared monologue. Kalyan Banerjee reportedly told the CEC that "history will not forgive you" for the deaths and alleged bias.

The TMC had demanded the meeting be live-streamed for transparency and insisted all 10 MPs be allowed (ECI initially agreed to only five). Both demands were rejected.

38 deaths documented

The party submitted a dossier naming 38 officials who died during SIR duties, alleging most deaths resulted from overwork, mental harassment, and unrealistic targets in the middle of winter without proper training or logistical support.

West Bengal's Voter Roll Revision Nears Completion Amid Controversy

West Bengal's voter roll revision: 7.64 crore forms circulated, 82% digitised, 99.8% voters covered as massive pre-2026 election exercise nears completion.

The SIR, launched by the ECI in early November across 12 states and union territories, including West Bengal, aims to clean up electoral rolls ahead of the 2026 assembly polls by verifying and weeding out bogus entries. It's billed as a routine house-to-house enumeration to ensure "error-free" lists, with the final West Bengal voter roll slated for release on February 7, 2026.

Supreme Court Backs SIR's Legality, Upholds Fair Process

The Supreme Court has earlier affirmed the validity of the SIR process, emphasising that while the Representation of the People Act outlines basic eligibility - requiring individuals to be at least 18 years old and ordinary residents - the ECI has broad superintendence powers under Article 324 of the Constitution to conduct such revisions. In hearings on November 11 and 26, a bench led by Chief Justice-designate Justice Surya Kant dismissed claims of novelty, noting that electoral roll revisions are a recurring democratic safeguard, not a threat to the process. The court observed that any fair and transparent method can be adopted, provided it aligns with statutory rules, and questioned petitioners' apprehensions by pointing out past successful implementations that took up to three years but did not disenfranchise voters en masse. While issuing notices to the ECI on challenges from states like West Bengal, the top court refused to stay the exercise, instead scheduling detailed hearings for December 9 on Bengal-specific pleas and indicating readiness to extend deadlines if substantial exclusions are proven.

Political Fallout

The TMC plans to make the SIR controversy the centrepiece of the upcoming Winter Session of Parliament and has warned of statewide agitation if the "conspiracy" is not rolled back. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already termed the exercise a "BJP-ECI plot" to delete poor, minority, and Matua voters - the core support base of her party.

The BJP in West Bengal dismissed the charges as "desperate drama" by a "panicked TMC" that fears losing illegal voters. Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari claimed the state government is obstructing BLOs from manufacturing sympathy.

The Election Commission is yet to issue any official statement on Friday's meeting or the specific allegations raised.

The final electoral rolls for West Bengal are scheduled for release on February 7, just months ahead of the crucial 2026 Assembly election.