ECI directs replacement of EROs for 78 Assembly constituencies in Bengal

Kolkata: The Election Commission of India has directed the immediate replacement of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) for 79 Assembly constituencies in West Bengal as their selections have violated the ECI-mandated criteria.

A communication on this count has already been sent to the West Bengal government to nominate names of those state government officers who match the criteria for being selected as EROs.

As per the ECI-mandated criteria, West Bengal Civil Service (Executive) cadre officials in the ranks of sub-divisional magistrates, sub-divisional officers and rural development officers can only be considered for selection as EROs.

However, an insider from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, said that ECI had noted that for these 78 constituencies, state civil service cadre officers below the mandated ranks have been selected, and hence the Commission had directed their replacements.

The ECI is checking the rank status of every ERO for all the 294 Assembly constituencies in the state, and similar anomalies have been detected in other constituencies as well. Replacement of EROs for those constituencies will also be ordered.

Last week, the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, sought the attention of the ECI regarding alleged irregularities in the selection of EROs in the state. He also raised the same issue that state civil services officers below the ranks mandated by the ECI have been appointed as EROs.

Thereafter, the ECI gave instructions to the CEO’s office that under no circumstances should the ECI-mandated criteria regarding the selection of electoral officers in the state, especially the booth-level officers (BLOs) and EROs, be compromised.

The ECI has already directed the District Magistrates, who are also the District Electoral Officers, and the Additional District Magistrate (elections) to complete the “mapping and matching” process within this week, following which the notification for the SIR will be announced.

The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, Manoj Kumar Agarwal, clarified last week that the existing voters whose names were there in the voters’ list in 2022, when the last SIR in West Bengal took place, will be automatically considered as valid voters.

Those not having names in the list for 2022 will have to submit any of the documents as citizenship proof, as mandated by the ECI. But in this case, only an Aadhaar card will not be enough, and the voter concerned will need one of the other documents as mandated by the ECI.

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