TMC, EC continue to spar amid row over Bengal SIR

The tussle between the Trinamool Congress (TMO) and Election Commission of India (ECI) intensified on Saturday over the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, with the former claiming the poll body was spreading “false narratives” over the ongoing exercise and the latter accusing the Mamata Banerjee government of not releasing enhanced honorarium for booth-level officers (BLOs) despite its approval.

- HT Correspondents

It came a day after a 10-member delegation of the TMC met the ECI top brass and alleged that around 40 SIR-related deaths had occurred in the eastern state, a charge junked by the poll body.

On Saturday, TMC’s leader in Rajya Sabha Derek O’Brien reiterated his party's allegation that ECI ‘was “responsible for the deaths of 40 BLO: ‘West Bengal. “Some fake narrative may come out again. Because what will happen? ‘Who is pressurising these BLOs? Let it be known today on the 29th of November, the BLOs are being pressurised because of the work they have been given through the Election Commission of India,” he said ata press conference in Delhi in the national capital.

OBrien alleged that ECI did not answer the five key questions raised by the TMC delegation on Friday and demanded that the poll body should release the transcript of the meeting. He added that the TMC was not against the SIR exercise, but against the manner in which it was being undertaken in

West Bengal, which will go to assembly polls next year.