Bengal SIR: BJP accuses Nadia DM of directing EROs & AEROs to manipulate voter list

Posted on by Vividh Bharathi

Kolkata, Feb 24 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Tuesday, accused the District Magistrate (DM), also known as District Electoral Officer (DEO), of the sensitive India-Bangladesh bordering the Nadia district of West Bengal, of instructing the electoral registration officers (EROs) and assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs) of the district to indulge in misappropriations in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.

BJP’s Information Technology Cell Chief and the party’s central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya, had posted an audio clip on his official X account, where some electoral offices in the Nadia district were reportedly heard having some suspicious conversations regarding the alleged misappropriations in the SIR exercise.

While sharing the audio clip on X, Malviya said that since Nadia was a sensitive border district facing massive illegal infiltration and reported one of the highest incidences of human trafficking, the integrity of the electoral process in such a district was of utmost importance.

In his social media post, the BJP leader had directly named the Nadia DM-cum-DEO Anish Dasgupta, and Additional Nadia DM (land revenue) Nripendra Singh as involved in the matter.

“We have specific information that in the Nadia district there has been a gross violation of the SIR proceedings. District Electoral Officer Anish Dasgupta, along with the Additional District Magistrate (land revenue) Nripendra Singh was present in Nakashipara block around 7 p.m. on February 20, 2026. They directed the ERO and AERO to manipulate the SIR process by enlisting a large number of voters despite logical discrepancies and questionable documentation. During the meeting, it was instructed that the concerned officials switch off their mobile phones,” Malviya said in his social media post.

According to the BJP leader, there were apprehensions that similar actions may have been carried out in other blocks under the same district administration, and therefore the matter required an immediate and impartial probe with the Election Commission of India (ECI) taking necessary corrective action in the matter.

“The larger question is: why is the Mamata Banerjee administration allegedly interfering in the SIR process? Why is there an attempt to shield fake or illegal voters? This does not appear to be an isolated instance, as similar reports have surfaced from several districts. Most recently, there are concerns that District Magistrates may be attempting to mislead judicial officers appointed at the district level. Evidence in this regard is reportedly in the public domain,” Malviya added.

There was no reaction from either of the two bureaucrats named by BJP leader Malviya in his social media post.

–IANS

src/khz

Related Posts

Assam Minister received Rs 50 lakh for private dairy firm: Gaurav Gogoi

Guwahati, June 23 (IANS) Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi sparked a political storm on Monday after he alleged that a state minister received Rs 50 lakh in taxpayer funds for his private dairy farm under a government scheme.

Three-time Lok Sabha MP Gogoi led the charge, directly targeting Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

In a post on X, Gogoi claimed that the Chief Minister had dismissed concerns over the allocation with a flippant remark, quoting him as saying, “What will they do after losing power? Rs 50 lakh of taxpayer money was handed to a minister for his private dairy farm in Assam.”

“The Chief Minister’s brazen response underscores the deeper issue — governance reduced to patronage.”

The opposition leader accused the Sarma government of consistently favouring those with political ties while neglecting the intended beneficiaries of welfare schemes.

He alleged that entrepreneurs, small farmers, and marginalised communities are routinely sidelined in favour of politically connected individuals.

“This isn’t an isolated case,” Gogoi said.

“We’ve seen time and again that those close to the corridors of power receive disproportionate benefits, while the truly needy are left out. This erodes trust in public institutions and undermines the very purpose of these schemes.”

Framing the controversy as a breach of public trust, Gogoi accused the ruling administration of treating governance as a personal entitlement.

“This is not public service — it’s the conversion of political power into private gain,” he said, calling for transparency and accountability in the use of taxpayer funds.

The state government has yet to issue an official response to the allegations. With the appointment of Gaurav Gogoi as the new Assam Congress chief, the party has signalled its intent to take on Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in a head-to-head political battle, as it seeks to reclaim lost ground in a state where its influence has sharply declined over the past decade.

The decision to elevate Gogoi — a three-time MP from Jorhat and the party’s Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha — is being seen as a strategic move by the Congress high command to inject renewed energy into its Assam unit.

It also reflects the party’s readiness to confront the BJP’s aggressive political narrative, particularly Sarma’s repeated attempts to target Gogoi using communal rhetoric, including what the Congress calls the “Pakistan bogey.”

By placing Gogoi at the helm, the Congress has sent a strong message that it is not backing down from a direct ideological and electoral clash.

The central leadership’s move also serves as a firm signal to factional leaders within the state unit: the party’s focus is now firmly behind Gogoi, even if he has not been formally declared the Chief Ministerial candidate.

The appointment marks a calculated shift in the Congress strategy — from internal firefighting to sharpening its attack on the BJP in one of the Northeast’s most politically significant states.

–IANS

tdr/dan

SIR in Bengal: Calcutta HC asks ECI to clarify whether OBC certificates issued after 2010 can be used as supporting documents

Kolkata, Dec 24 (IANS) A single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Wednesday, directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to clarify Other Backward Class (OBC) certificates issued by the West Bengal government after 2010, which were scrapped earlier by the high court, as supporting documents for the second phase of the three-stage Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state.

Last week, the West Bengal unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), approached the Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Krishna Rao seeking court’s intervention in restricting presentation of OBC certificates issued by the state after 2010, as supporting documents during the hearing session on claims and objections on draft voters’ list, which was published on December 16.

The matter came up for hearing on Wednesday, and finally, Justice Rao said that the Commission could only take a decision on whether these OBC certificates would be treated as valid supporting documents or not.

Justice Rao also directed the Commission to present its observation in the matter within the next seven days.

While the petition in the matter was moved at the Calcutta High Court last week, the petitioner’s counsel said that on May 22 last year, the Calcutta High Court’s division bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Rajasekhar Mantha scrapped all OBC certificates that were issued by the West Bengal government after 2010.

While scraping those certificates, the division bench also ruled that those certificates should not be allowed to be used for any purpose in the future.

Hence, the petitioner’s counsel had said that such cancelled OBC certificates should not be used as documents of identity proof in the second phase of the three-stage SIR in the state.

The ECI had already released the draft voters’ list in West Bengal on December 16.

Now the process of hearing on claims and objections on the draft voters’ list will start from next week, and that process will involve verification of identity documents.

The ECI had specified 13 documents as documentary evidence of identity proof. These include Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and OBC certificates.

The West Bengal BJP unit has approached the Calcutta High Court with a plea to stop the use of the cancelled OBC certificates as identity documents in the SIR exercise.

–IANS

src/khz