40 BLO deaths in Bengal so far: TMC

A 10-member Trinamool Congress delegation on Friday met with the full bench of the Election Commission of India (EC) here and alleged that around 40 SIR-related deaths had occurred in West Bengal so far, accusing the poll panel chief of having "blood on his hands".

- PREETHA NAIR @ New Delhi

The delegation, led by TMC Rajya Sabha leader Derek O'Brien included Lok Sabha MPs Mahua Moitra, Satabdi Roy, Kalyan Banerjee, Pratima Mondal, Sajda Ahmed, and Rajya Sabha MPs Dola Sen, Mamata Thakur, Saket Gokhale, and Prakash Chik Barik.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, O'Brien said the party had raised five questions, but Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar did not respond to any of them. "We started the meeting by stating that the CEC has blood on his hands. We raised five questions. After this, Kalyan Banerjee, Mahua Moitra, and Mamata Thakur spoke and shared whatever they had to in about 40 minutes," O'Brien said. "Then the CEC spoke uninterrupted for one hour. We were also not interrupted while we spoke, but we did not receive any answer to any of our five questions," he added.