BLO Suicide Row: Trinamool Congress asks EC to release transcript of their meeting

New Delhi: Trinamool Congress on Saturday asked the Election Commission (EC) to release the transcript of their meeting, disputing the version of the poll body even as the Mamata Banerjee-led party accused it of putting pressure on Booth Level Officers (BLOs) leading to their deaths.

It said the EC did not answer any of the five questions the ten-MP delegation raised on the SIR exercise in West Bengal, which the leaders alleged was aimed at targeting Bengali voters. They also asked whether it doesn’t raise questions on the Lok Sabha polls conducted on an electoral roll, which it says is flawed.

While Trinamool told the EC during the meeting on Friday that it has “blood on their hands” for the deaths due to the “completely unplanned, reckless and heartless” SIR, the poll body said it asked the party “not to influence or threaten” officials involved in the exercise and abide by electoral laws.  

Addressing a press conference, Trinamool Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O’Brien claimed that the EC “planted news in the media” about the meeting but none of the issues that were attributed to the poll body was raised by it. He questioned why the EC was not issuing a statement but “planting stories” .

“Our National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee has made a reasonable demand…Why don’t you release the transcript of what was transpired in the meeting. We are not asking it to be done in one or two days. Take your time but release the transcript,” O’Brien, who led the delegation, said. 

O’Brien, who was flanked by party MPs Pratima Mandal, Sajda Ahmed and Saket Gokhale, said the EC was applying pressure on the BLOs on the SIR and it was leading to deaths. He said the issue was brought to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s notice by Chief Minister Mamata in a letter.

The Trinamool MPs raised the issue of deaths of BLOs, including one on Saturday. O’Brien said they are “not just a number but a human tragedy”.