Key Points
Adhikari alleges BDO overstepped authority in voter list meeting
ECI and CEO office examining complaint
Unauthorized meeting raises electoral process concerns
Potential political interference suspected
The matter has been brought to the notice of the CEO's office by West Bengali Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari who claimed that the BDO of Santipur has no authority to convene the meeting, where one agenda was providing booth level agents list and identifying dead voters and those voters who have shifted from the area, since the final voter list has already been published on January 5 this year.
Any such revision process has to be an exception which can only be carried out after specific instructions have been issued by the CEO, West Bengal, or the ECI, which was not the case here. Hence, the BDO has overstepped its authority in this case.
Sources in the CEO's office said that they have found merits in the complaints of the West Bengal Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari that the BDO has acted beyond his authority.
"The matter has been intimated to the office of the ECI in New Delhi and the CEO office is now waiting for instructions from there," they said.
Adhikari had also claimed that the BDO had overstepped his authority allegedly to please Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who at a party meeting earlier this week accused the BJP of including voters from other states in the voters' list of West Bengal through two private agencies and in cooperation with some state government staff engaged in the process of managing electoral roll.
"The BDO has to learn that his job is not to do his political boss Mamata Banerjee's bidding and execute the whims and fancies of the Chief Minister," the letter of the opposition claimed.
He has also requested the ECI and the office of the CEO, West Bengal to take strong action against such bureaucrats and ensure that such biased officers are refrained from taking part in the election process.
