Kolkata, February 16 Senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari alleged on Monday that the Election Commission's decision to suspend seven Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) was the first time that the poll panel had exercised its statutory authority to directly penalize officers found guilty of misconduct related to the Systematic Voters' Registration (SVRS) exercise, after being prompted by the Mamata Banerjee government to take such actions.
The Commission reserved the right to take further action and register First Information Reports (FIRs) against these officials if disciplinary proceedings were not initiated by the state at the earliest, said Adhikari, the Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal.
"This was an unprecedented move by the EC. No such steps have been taken against government officials in any other state where the SVRS exercise is being conducted. The officers violated the Commission's directives in a serious manner."
"They accepted fake school leaving certificates, PAN cards, and notarized affidavits as documents during the verification phase. They acted under the pressure of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the district's top brass to include the names of fake voters, as well as under the instructions of the Chief Secretary," the BJP leader alleged.
He said that all files related to the EC should be handled by the Chief Secretary's office. However, in Bengal, these files are forwarded to the Chief Minister, who decides on what needs to be done.
"This is not done in any other state, not even by the Prime Minister during general elections," Adhikari added.
On Sunday, the Election Commission suspended seven officials at the level of Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) with immediate effect for serious misconduct, dereliction of duty, and misuse of statutory powers in connection with the ongoing SVRS exercise in Bengal.
The poll authority has also directed the state Chief Secretary Nandini Chakravorty to initiate disciplinary proceedings against these officials by their respective cadre controlling authorities immediately, without any delay, and to inform the Commission about it.
Of the suspended AEROs, three are from the Murshidabad district, two from South 24 Parganas, and one each from Purba Medinipur and Jalpaiguri.
Responding sharply to the EC's move, the Trinamool Congress claimed that the penalized officers were targeted because they chose not to bow to the poll body's "demands".
"The Commission was trying to override the decisions of EROs and AEROs in choosing eligible voters by deploying micro observers from BJP-ruled states. We moved the Supreme Court to ensure that didn't happen. The officers were suspended because they chose to stand their ground. Whether they tried to enroll fake voters is an allegation that hasn't been proven yet," said Debangshu Bhattacharya, head of the TMC's IT cell.
The verification phase of the SVRS exercise in Bengal was concluded on Sunday amid apprehensions from non-BJP political outfits of large-scale deletions of names from the final rolls, which is scheduled to be published on February 28.
The names of over 58 lakh voters were deleted in the draft rolls published after the enumeration phase of the ongoing exercise.