Kolkata, 20 January (H.S.) :

Senior Trinamool Congress leader and the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee will lead a party delegation to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal in Kolkata on January 27. As part of the programme, Banerjee is also expected to lead a rally to the CEO’s office. A 10-member delegation of Trinamool Congress leaders will accompany him for the meeting with state CEO Manoj Agarwal.

A Trinamool Congress leader said on Tuesday that a formal request seeking an appointment with the CEO has been sent via email. The move comes a day after the party described as a major victory the Supreme Court’s directions to the Election Commission of India (ECI), asking it to ensure that the verification of voters placed under the “logical discrepancies” category during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in West Bengal is carried out transparently and without causing undue stress or inconvenience to citizens.

According to party sources, the email does not spell out a detailed agenda for the meeting. It merely states that the delegation led by Abhishek Banerjee will visit the CEO’s office to discuss several “important issues” related to the ongoing SIR exercise in the state.

It may be recalled that on December 31, Abhishek Banerjee had met Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar in New Delhi, accompanied by a 10-member delegation. After that meeting, he had accused the Election Commission of harassing people in the name of “logical discrepancies” and had demanded that Booth Level Agents-2 (BLA-2) be allowed to remain present at hearing centres.

Reacting on Monday to the Supreme Court’s directions to the ECI on the SIR process, Banerjee said that the Bharatiya Janata Party’s “SIR game” in West Bengal was now over. Addressing party workers in Barasat in North 24 Parganas district, he said the BJP had been defeated in court and would also be defeated in the elections in the days ahead.

Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh