Kolkata, February 16 (IANS). Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari on Monday welcomed the Election Commission’s decision to suspend 7 Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) amid the SIR process. The officer alleged that such irregularities were done at the behest of the Mamata Banerjee government.
Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari spoke to reporters outside the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata before leaving for Delhi. Suvendu Adhikari said that till now the Election Commission was giving instructions to the state Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty as per the rules of the Constitution, but this is the first time that the Commission has used its power in the SIR process.
The BJP leader said, “These 7 officials have been suspended for the right reasons. In the SIR process, the officials accepted wrong school certificates and PAN cards. They completely violated the 13 guidelines of the Election Commission.”
Suvendu Adhikari alleged that the officials did this under pressure from Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty. The District Magistrate or DEO did this and Mamata Banerjee is running the entire racket in the state through Nandini Chakraborty. The official criticized the state government, saying Form 7 complaints were not resolved at the behest of the commission.
He claimed, “In no state does the Election Commission file go to the Chief Minister’s table. The administration has to implement it. In West Bengal, the Commission files are sent to the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister directly intervenes, which is not done in any state in India. Even the Prime Minister does not do this during general elections. But this is done in Bengal.”
The Leader of Opposition said that for the first time the Election Commission has made arrangements to correct this.
–IANS
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