Kolkata, February 10 Senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari alleged on Tuesday that the West Bengal government has included the names of many Group C employees as well as retired Group B officers in the list of 8,505 officials submitted to the EC for the SIR, misleading the court and the election panel.
The state government, however, rejected the accusation as baseless and said the names of Group B officials were submitted to the Election Commission, in accordance with the observation made by the Supreme Court on Monday.
Adhikari told a press conference that if any state government employee – functioning as ERO and AERO – commits any single act of impropriety in the SIR exercise, the BJP will take up the issue with the EC to initiate immediate action, and the officer cannot be saved by anyone.
"Mamata Banerjee has misrepresented numerous Group C state officials as Group B. She has even included retired Group B and Group C officials in the list, violating EC guidelines and the Supreme Court directive. She has taken a serious risk in violation of the assurances made by her government," the Leader of the Opposition said.
Adhikari stated that there are "multiple inconsistencies in the list of 8,505 provided by the government," and warned "one section of booth-level officials (BLO) who are sycophants of TMC to mind their ways."
Even officials at Panchayats have been included in the list in a non-transparent manner, and the state's game will be up soon, he claimed.
In a subsequent statement, the West Bengal government said, "Some interested quarters are intentionally distorting the contents of the database of names of Group B officials submitted to the ECI, in accordance with the observation made by the Hon'ble Supreme Court dated 09.02.26."
The government clarified that the list of Group B employees submitted to ECI is strictly in accordance with the existing pay-level criteria as notified by the Finance Department vide a memorandum dated 6.10.2020.
"As per the said memorandum, the classification of state government employees into Group ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ has been clearly defined in accordance with existing rules. The preparation and submission of the list of Group ‘B’ employees has been carried out scrupulously following these notified norms, without any deviation," the statement read.
Noting that West Bengal has provided a list of 8,505 Group B officers to the poll panel for the SIR exercise, the apex court on Monday also extended the deadline for scrutiny of documents submitted by affected persons by one week beyond February 14, as this process is likely to take some time and to help electoral registration officers (EROs) to take appropriate decisions.
Adhikari also took a dig at Banerjee’s announcement that Yuva Sathi camps to help unemployed youth will take place from February 15-26, "as she is anticipating elections will be announced by the end of this month and seems to be in a hurry."
"She can realise the ground is slipping from under her feet, and the people of the state, the youth of Bengal, have deserted her. She has only two-three months left to remain as cm and hence is in a desperate bid to hoodwink people," he said.
The senior BJP leader said the hurry to send the Lakshmir Bhandar financial allowance, and now the Yuva Sathi grants have already resulted in at least Rs 1000 crore in expenses by the state.
