Abhishek posts WA ‘order’ on EROs, sparks fresh row

Kolkata: A WhatsApp instruction posted by Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Saturday — alleging that electoral registration officers (EROs) were no longer able to monitor SIR progress on the ECI portal — has led to a fresh spat, with the Election Commission warning officers of "misconduct" in "leaking instructions".This is the second time Banerjee has posted WhatsApp screenshots of EC instructions. On Saturday, the instructions appeared to have been issued by Bengal's chief electoral officer Manoj Agarwal himself.
Banerjee, in an X post, flagged violations on the part of the EC and called it a "triple violation", stating that EROs were responsible for ensuring that no Indian voter is left out. He alleged that when district election officers (DEOs) questioned why EROs could not access all parts of the portal, the CEO replied that "AEROs are at par with EROs and EROs cannot legally supervise the disposals being done by AEROs".Banerjee claimed this was a gross violation of norms by the EC and alleged it was a design to delete names of Bengal voters arbitrarily.He added that this also violated Section 13B of the Representation of the People Act, which stipulates that electoral rolls "shall be prepared and revised by an electoral registration officer". Banerjee claimed that it violated Section 13C of the Act too, which states that AEROs are to "assist any electoral registration officer in the performance of his functions" and that they are "subject to the control of the electoral registration officer".The TMC neta further alleged that this violated Supreme Court orders and the EC's own regulations, adding, "What is even more alarming is that when this serious anomaly was escalated to the chief electoral officer, West Bengal, through the district election officers, it was met with a cavalier and dismissive response wholly unbecoming of a constitutional office."CEO Agarwal said: "It is very unfortunate that some official communication among the DEOs has been purposefully leaked by a bureaucrat, and he knows the consequences. I am not going to do policing here. It surely constitutes gross misconduct on the part of the officer concerned who sent internal messages to the MP. Again, it must be said that we have nothing to hide. If a chat has been leaked, it was done with mala fide intent. The EROs and AEROs are at the same level, and the EROs are not being granted access to all parts because there was a complaint from Baranagar that an ERO had tried to indulge in malpractice by misusing another person's login; therefore, this loophole needs to be plugged."