All-party meeting at Bengal CEO's office over booth rearrangement; Trinamool unhappy with outcome

Kolkata, Aug 29 (IANS) An all-party meeting at the office of West Bengal's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) was held on Friday to discuss election preparations and increasing the number of booths in the state through voter reshuffle. 

The state-led Trinamool Congress and opposition parties attended the meeting and made their stand clear on such issues.

However, no discussion was held on Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal.

In view of the change in the voting pattern, there will be an increase of about 14,000 booths in West Bengal.

West Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal said that political parties can submit written complaints regarding the booth pattern till September 8 and action will be taken after examining the complaints.

Earlier, there were 80,681 booths.

After the rearrangement of booths, 13,816 booths have increased.

As a result, the number of booths in the state will be 94,497.

In addition, the CEO will ask the District Election Officers (DEOs) to hold district-wise meetings to resolve any objections that may arise.

The Trinamool Congress, however, was apprehensive over the increase in the number of booths in the state.

State Minister Aroop Biswas and Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Partha Bhowmik attended the meeting on Friday.

"Earlier, more than 1,500 voters could vote in a booth. But according to the new rules of the Election Commission, from now on, there will be 1,200 voters in each booth and separate booths will be created for those who are in excess. We have no objection to the rearrangement of booths. We have said that the additional booths should be in the same polling station. Voters should not have to go two kilometres away to cast their votes," Biswas said.

In the context of the recent controversy over the SIR of the voter list, the Minister said, "The Election Commission has to work impartially. If the referee is not right, then how can it be! No political party can be satisfied. An attempt is being made to take away the right to vote. We are not satisfied with this meeting. We have expressed our views."

The senior TMC leader added, "There was no agenda on SIR in the meeting today. It was not discussed. Our stand is clear that there will be no SIR in West Bengal. No one can be given benefits in the name of SIR."

During the meeting, there were occasional arguments between the BJP and Trinamool Congress on booth layout and various issues.

After the meeting, BJP leader Shishir Bajoria said, "The DEOs (District Election Officers) of 24 districts have the same language regarding the booth layout. They said that not a single complaint has been filed. How did the DEOs give such a report? All 24 DEOs should be held accountable."

He also alleged that the names of Booth Level Officers (BLO) appointments were supplied from the Trinamool Congress office.

On behalf of the Congress, Ashutosh Chatterjee, Khwaja Ahmed, Mrinal Naskar joined the all-party meeting by sporting 'No Political SIR' posters and placards.

After the meeting, Ashutosh Chatterjee said, "It was an incomplete meeting. It is not possible that there is no complaint about the booth arrangement from the districts. A few DEOs are working at the instruction of Trinamool."

On the other hand, during the meeting, Congress leaders raised the issue of BJP's violence and vandalism at state Congress headquarters in Kolkata.

It was demanded that the culprits should be identified and arrested quickly.

Incidentally, before attending the meeting on Friday, Congress leaders brought "No SIR" placards to which the BJP objected.