BLO brawl: Why EC might struggle to carry out a Bihar-style SIR in Bengal

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is locked in battle with the Election Commission over its supposed plans to draw up the state’s voter lists from scratch. She fired her latest salvo at the Commission on August 28, promising her party workers that she would not allow anybody’s name to be struck off from the voter lists.

In strictly legal terms, there is little that Banerjee can do about this. Article 324(1) of the Constitution gives the Election Commission the power to prepare the electoral rolls for national as well as state elections. In fact, the commission is currently using those powers to carry out a so-called special intensive revision of the voter rolls in Bihar.

But Bengal is not Bihar. Though legally, the commission draws up voter rolls, in practice, it needs to depend on the state government to do so. And this federal quirk gives Chief Minister Banerjee significant power to influence the process in West Bengal.

As a result, state government officials who would draw up the new voter rolls are now at the centre of a political tug of war. The chief minister and the Election Commission are engaged in a power tussle over who can command them.

Carrot and stick

At the heart of the clash...

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