"Inhuman nature of the task": Abhishek Banerjee blames EC's SIR process after BLO Haradhan Mondal's suicide

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], December 28 (ANI): Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday alleged that another Booth Level Officer (BLO) appointed by the Election Commission of India (ECI) has died by suicide due to "inhuman pressure" linked to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal.
In a post on X, Banerjee claimed that Haradhan Mondal, a BLO from 249 Ranibandh Assembly Constituency, Part No. 206, took his own life and held the nature of the task assigned to him responsible in a suicide note.

The death toll keeps mounting. Another BLO appointed and engaged by the @ECISVEEP has taken his own life under the inhuman pressure of a HURRIED, CHAOTIC and POLITICALLY-MOTIVATED SIR process. Shri Haradhan Mondal of 249 Ranibandh AC, Part No. 206, died by suicide. In his suicide…

— Abhishek Banerjee (@abhishekaitc) December 28, 2025

"The death toll keeps mounting. Another BLO appointed and engaged by the @ECISVEEP has taken his own life under the inhuman pressure of a HURRIED, CHAOTIC and POLITICALLY-MOTIVATED SIR process. Shri Haradhan Mondal of 249 Ranibandh AC, Part No. 206, died by suicide. In his suicide note, he explicitly held inhuman nature of the task responsible for his decision. Over 50 lives have already been lost to panic, anxiety, exhaustion and fear engineered by a voter-cleansing operation designed for BJP's electoral gain," Banerjee wrote on X.
The TMC leader accused the Election Commission of acting in a "pliant and complicit" manner and alleged that the voter list revision was being conducted to benefit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) electorally.
Banerjee added,"What should have been a methodical process has instead been bulldozed through by a pliant, complicit Election Commission, bending its spine to serve the political arithmetic of ONE PARTY and the ego of ONE MAN. And as for the BJP, if people drop dead from fatigue, despair or terror, it is an acceptable collateral cost, a convenient footnote in their power play. History is watching. Bengal will not forgive and Bengal will not forget."
On Saturday, a five-member delegation of the Trinamool Congress Party met the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal.
In a post on X, TMC said, "The delegation made it clear that such tactics corrode public trust and shred the credibility of the electoral process in Bengal. We demanded that CEO-WB enforce statutory procedure without fear or favour and shield every eligible citizen from wrongful, engineered exclusion"
"We stand guard over Bengal's democratic rights. No force, no conspiracy, no BJP-ECI machinery will be allowed to erase the people's voice or their vote," the post added.
Meanwhile, the ECI had completed the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls as part of preparations for the next West Bengal Assembly elections, expected to be held in March-April 2026.
Earlier, the draft rolls released show that 58,20,899 names, about 7.59 per cent of the total electorate, have been provisionally deleted on grounds such as death, permanent migration, or untraceability. (ANI)