The Election Commission of Indiahas ordered a review following complaints thatI-PAC employees were deployed as data entry operators during the ongoing revision of voter rolls in West Bengal. They had allegedly worked as part of the SIR teams after being tagged as contractual state government employees. The update came even as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee led massive protests against the Enforcement Directorate following its raids against IPAC and its founder.
Officials in the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal office, stated that the Commission has ordered random re-checking of the backgrounds of contractual personnel who were involved in data entry work. Special emphasis has been placed on checking whether mandatory police verification was carried out as required under ECI guidelines, as per the report by IANS.
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Mamata Banerjee accuses BJP of targeting voters’ rights
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in a strongly worded post on X, blamed the BJP for dismantling Bengal’s democratic fabric and targeting voters right through central agencies and the SIR process. Quoting a line from a Bengali poem-(I will not be afraid), Banerjee said the BJP was “strangling our constitutional right to vote” and described the SIR exercise as “vindictive.” Commenting on the massive protest march in Kolkata, she stated that the spontaneous participation of people showed that the “collapse of this brazen autocracy is inevitable.” She asserted that her party would respond with “unbreakable democratic resistance” and with stand with people through “politics of humanity.”
TMC Rajya Sabha MP questions ED raid timing
In an interview with The Indian Express, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale stated that I-PAC hold “privileged information” related to the party’s electoral strategy and internal surveys. He also questioned the timing of the ED action in view to the Assembly polls, saying, “Why has the ED suddenly woken up? What a coincidence…” while pointing to the agency’s claim that the transactions mentioned were linked to the 2022 Goa Assembly elections.
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Why is data entry work under scrutiny?
Data-entry operators manually enter details from voter enumeration forms collected by Booth-Level Officers (BLOs) and submit them to Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant EROs. The report mentioned that errors at this stage, whether unintentional or otherwise, can impact decisions on the inclusion or deletion of names from the final voter’s list. IANS stated that there have already been examples of wrong entries after the enumeration stage that caused inconvenience to some voters. The draft voters list was published on December 16, and the final list is slated for February 14, after which the polling dates for Assembly elections are expected to be announced.
ED-IPAC row escalates with protests, FIRs and court battle
The ECI review comes amid heightened political tensions and the Enforcement Directorate‘s (ED) search and seizure operation related to I-PAC. Banerjee headed the protest march from 8B Bus Stand to Hazra More in south Kolkata. She accused the BJP-led Centre of misusing central agencies and alleged the ED action was taken with an aim to access the TMC’s electoral strategy. Banerjee stated, “What I did yesterday, I did as the chairperson of TMC. I have nothing illegal,” referring to her visit to the residence of I-PAC director Pratik Jain.
PTI also reported that the standoff reached to police stations after Banerjee registered complaints, leading Kolkata and Bidhannagar Police to lodge FIRs and initiate probe. In court, the Calcutta High Court adjourned hearings related to the raids to January 14 because of courtroom congestion.
The ED has also sought transfer of the probe into Thursday’s event to the CBI, claiming that “key incriminating documents” were seized and later “stolen”. On the other hand, TMC moved court seeking restraint on alleged “misuse and dissemination” of seized material. I-PAC in its first reaction, stated the raids set an “unsettling precedent” and it would continue to work in “unfazed and unperturbed” manner. |
