Kolkata, February 18 In a scathing attack on the Election Commission, senior TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday alleged that poll officials were continuing to flout Supreme Court directives by issuing instructions to their subordinates via WhatsApp during the Systematic Area Verification (SAV) exercise in West Bengal.
Sharing purported screenshots of a WhatsApp group chat on X, Banerjee said the Supreme Court had repeatedly emphasised transparency, due process, and adherence to official channels of communication.
"Yet, we are witnessing instructions being circulated over WhatsApp rather than through formal, traceable, and accountable mechanisms," he said.
He also questioned instructions sent by Special Roll Observer (SRO) C Murugan directly to micro observers.
"Even more disturbing are credible reports that Special Roll Observer, C Murugan, was issuing instructions regarding the acceptability of birth certificates directly to micro observers in a WhatsApp group, in order to inflate deletion numbers. Should I remind the ECI of the Supreme Court's categorical directive that the role of micro-observers must remain strictly assistive?" he said.
Banerjee, the TMC national general secretary and considered number 2 in the party, questioned why the statutory procedure was being "bypassed" and under whose instructions it was being done.
He also alleged that login credentials of roll observers linked to specific districts were being accessed centrally from Kolkata and "misused".
"Login data is being misused to generate queries and specifically target a certain community at the direction of Delhi's political masters within the ECI. If this matter is independently examined, it will be established that the location and IP address of the login device differ from the actual location of the concerned roll observer," he claimed.
The Diamond Harbour MP said his party would take up the matter before the Supreme Court, which was hearing multiple petitions against the SAV exercise, including one moved by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
He said, "The Election Commission derives its legitimacy from PUBLIC TRUST, not POLITICAL PATRONAGE. We shall pursue this matter before the highest court of law. Furthermore, any person aligning themselves with or acting at the behest of Delhi's zamindars will face stringent and uncompromising legal action. Be prepared!"
The allegations were leveled less than 24 hours after the CM tore into the poll body, calling it a "Tughlaqui commission", and accused it of acting at the behest of the BJP to manipulate the voters' lists in the state.
Echoing Banerjee's statements, the TMC took to X and alleged that the EC was flouting the apex court directions to provide undue advantage to the BJP ahead of the upcoming state polls.
The party maintained that the SRO's instructions on panchayat-issued birth certificates were "patently unlawful".
"Gram Panchayats function as statutory Registrars of Births and Deaths in rural India. Any UNILATERAL instruction to discard such legally valid documents is ARBITRARY, ILLEGAL, and WITHOUT AUTHORITY," the party stated.
"If @ECISVEEP retains even an iota of credibility, it must answer these serious questions transparently and immediately. A constitutional body cannot afford to function as a POLITICAL BACK OFFICE," it added.
Responding to the allegations, the BJP said it was a "last ditch and hopeless" attempt by the TMC to derail the SAV exercise in the state.
"The TMC knows that if the SAV exercise is thwarted, it will benefit the party in multiple assembly seats where fake voters ensured its victory with narrow margins in the last state elections. The Barrackpore constituency is a case in point, where my sources tell me that the Trinamool polled about 50,000 false votes last time to win the seat. Hence, these attempts to obstruct the exercise when the process is nearly coming to an end," Union minister Sukanta Majumdar said.
Calling the TMC's "expose" a "cheap political thriller", the party's IT cell chief Amit Malviya defended Murugan's action by calling it a "clarification" of prescribed norms and not instructions as alleged.
"There is nothing objectionable in what Shri C Murugan, Roll Observer for South 24 Parganas, states in the referenced messages. He merely reiterates directions already issued in writing by the Supreme Court and the Election Commission of India. These instructions are uniform and apply to all observers. He introduces no new guidelines. He only clarifies that certain documents do not form part of the prescribed instructions," Malviya wrote on X.
"That is not conspiracy. That is compliance," he added.