Kolkata: Trinamool Congress legislator Asit Majumdar on Tuesday disrupted and forcefully closed down a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls hearing for a second consecutive day at a centre in Polba in West Bengal’s Hooghly district.
Majumdar disrupted the hearing session in the district, demanding that the booth-level agents (BLA)-2s should be allowed to be present at the session.
Earlier, on Monday, he forcibly halted a hearing session at a hearing centre in Polba.
On Tuesday morning, after the hearing session started at a centre in Polba, he forcibly addressed the voters assembled there to participate in the hearing process. “This hearing process is just meant to harass you people. Will you still tolerate such harassment?” he was heard telling the assembled voters.
Just a couple of voices replied that they would not tolerate this, Majumdar directed the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) to stop the hearing process for the time being. Later, he told the media persons that the hearing process would not take place unless the party BLA-2s are allowed at the hearing session.
“The Election Commission of India (ECI) will have to either give us in writing that BLA-2s will be allowed to stay at the hearing session. If the Commission does not give that in writing, the hearing session will not be allowed to be conducted,” Majumdar told media persons.
Incidentally, after the hearing sessions were disrupted and forcefully closed down by the ruling party MLAs in at least three places in West Bengal on Monday, the ECI issued a fresh order making it clear that under no circumstances will the BLA-2s be allowed to stay at the hearing session.
On Monday, the ECI made it clear that electoral registration officers (EROs) would be liable in case any BLA of a political party is present at the hearing session.
The ECI had also made the District Magistrates, as well as the District Electoral Officers (DEOs), liable in case of any future incident of forcefully stopping the hearing process, as was being done by Majumdar in the Hooghly district.
The Commission had instructed the DEOs to personally reach the hearing venue in the future in case any such forceful stopping of the session is reported, as it happened earlier in the day.
However, even after the ECI instructions, the hearing session was disrupted on Tuesday, with the person responsible for that being the same Trinamool Congress legislator.
Fashion designer-turned-politician and Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Agnimitra Paul said that while the SIR is taking place in so many states, the only state where problems and tensions are arising over that is West Bengal. “This tension is purposefully being created by the ruling party, since they are realising that SIR will upset many of their evil calculations,” Paul said.
(IANS)
