TMC’s protests disrupt SIR hearings at 3 Bengal centres

Special Electoral Roll Observer for West Bengal Subrata Gupta said, “All matters were reported to ECI. Now, let’s see what ECI will decide, we will carry that forward. Till then, we will follow the procedure that has been mentioned… We can’t allow BLAs until further orders.” He also said, out of 32 lakh unmapped electors, around 30 lakh notices have already been generated, from which 14 lakh notices have been served.

At Chinsurah in Hooghly district, Trinamool MLA Asit Majumdar stopped the SIR hearing at the Chinsurah-Mogra block office, demanding that BLAs or representatives of political parties be permitted inside the hearing venue. According to party sources, the protest followed directions issued by Abhishek Banerjee during a virtual meeting with party leaders and workers on Sunday.

After halting the hearing for around two hours, Majumdar withdrew his dharna, citing “humanitarian grounds”.

“Without BLAs’ help, BLOs can’t do the enumeration form fill-up process. How can the Election Commission bar BLAs? West Bengal is not the zamindari of the Election Commission. We did this according to Abhishek Banerjee’s order,” Majumdar said after the protest.

Similar scenes were witnessed at the Dhanekhali block office in Hooghly, where Trinamool MLA Ashima Patra staged a protest demanding that BLAs be allowed during the hearings.

“Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) have to show the Election Commission’s order. Otherwise, BLA-2 has to be allowed inside the hearing venue. Hearings of elderly persons should also be held at their houses,” Patra said.

In Paschim Medinipur district, Trinamool Congress workers protested in Medinipur town, leading to a hearing being stalled for nearly an hour.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has permitted only Booth Level Officers (BLOs), their supervisors, Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) and micro-observers to be present during the hearings. This excludes BLAs, who are representatives of political parties and were involved in collecting documents.

Under the SIR process, hearings are being held to decide the fate of around 32 lakh “unmapped” voters — those whose names or parents’ names did not appear in the 2002 SIR list — along with electors flagged for logical discrepancies such as data mismatches. In each of the state’s 294 Assembly constituencies, hearings are being conducted at 11 tables with EROs or AEROs and micro-observers present.

A senior ECI official said BLAs were excluded to “avoid unnecessary chaos” and ensure transparency. “Those who are part of the hearing process will upload documents provided by electors, so nothing is hidden. There is no need to present BLAs during the hearing of an elector,” the official said.

The party’s opposition to the decision was reflected in Abhishek Banerjee’s address to Trinamool BLAs on Sunday. Hearings at the Chinsurah-Mogra block office resumed after the two-hour disruption.

Meanwhile, tension also flared in the Shirakol area of South 24 Parganas during the visit of ECI’s special roll observer C Murugan on Monday. When Murugan visited a government school in Shirakol under Magrahat-I block to oversee the hearing process, local residents gheraoed him, demanding payment of wages under the 100-day work scheme.

During the protest, Murugan’s car was allegedly attacked and the handle of the car door was broken. He remained at the spot during the agitation, and police later dispersed the protesters after around half an hour.