Waiting for over 24 hours, BLO delegation says they refuse to leave EC office until meeting with Bengal CEO: ‘Being threatened’

Inside the building, a 10-member delegation — four BLOs and six teachers or state government employees — remained seated outside the CEO’s office, where they had been since Monday afternoon. They said they would not leave until the CEO met them. On Monday night, they had gheraoed the CEO’s chamber and refused to move. The following morning, the standoff continued.

Additional CEO Dibyendu Das spoke to the delegation and asked them to wait in his chamber, but they declined, saying they would remain outside the CEO’s office.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Moidol Islam, a member of the BLO Adhikar Raksha Committee, said, “We will wait outside the office until the CEO meets us. We came to express our grievances regarding the short span of time given to fill the enumeration forms and other issues, but instead of listening to us, BLOs sitting on dharna are being threatened. We have been waiting for over 24 hours and the CEO does not have five minutes to meet us.”

Despite the sit-in, BLOs continued uploading enumeration forms digitally from the dharna spot.

Tension had escalated on Monday when BLOs engaged in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) allegedly clashed with police while trying to enter the CEO’s office during a demonstration against “excessive work pressure”. Several BLOs climbed the barricades in an attempt to enter.

Earlier on Monday, the BLO Adhikar Raksha Committee had held a march from College Square to the building housing the CEO’s office.

Later in the evening, a 10-member delegation entered the CEO’s office to submit their grievances but, upon exiting, alleged that one of the members had received a threat message for participating in the rally. They then began an impromptu sit-in inside the office. Kolkata Police and security staff eventually lifted the protesters and removed them from the premises.

Late on Monday night, BJP councillor Sajal Ghosh and his supporters reached the CEO’s office, claiming they had information that the delegation intended to tamper with documents. Slogans were raised by both BJP and TMC supporters, and a scuffle broke out, prompting additional police deployment outside the CEO’s office.