Didi Questions EC’s Use of Central Govt Staff, AI in Voter Roll Revision
Collect information about who has been posted where, their departments and residential addresses.
Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday questioned the Election Commission's deputation of the central government employees and use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the second phase of the special intensive revision (SIR).
The Trinamul Congress supremo told her party's booth level assistants at a meeting in Netaji Indoor Stadium, “Many central government employees have been deputed for work. Collect information about who has been posted where, their departments and residential addresses.”
She added, “I need their details. I will help them but I need their details. The EC single handedly roped in them without consulting the state government.” Ms Banerjee then expressed her fears in the use of AI by the EC to tamper the voters' list.
“I heard about the use of AI this time. It may happen that there will be another Mamata Banerjee by name that has been uploaded in the list. So when I go to cast my vote, I wouldn't be allowed to do it but the vote would get cast in another's name,” the CM alleged.
She however did not miss the occasion to accuse BJP and EC of having a nexus to delete the voters' names from the list in the SIR, claiming, “Whatever is being dictated from the BJP office daily is happening at EC. I have come to know that BJP has placed an agent in EC.”
Ms Banerjee also took a dig at chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar by mocking him as ‘Vanish Kumar’ over the exclusion of 58.20 lakh voters' names in the draft roll. She wondered, “Another 1.5 crore names have to be dropped to satisfy the BJP! But your ploy won't succeed.”
According to Ms Banerjee, the names were delisted for petty issues like mismatch in names and surnames of the voters. She pointed out the EC has made gross errors in mapping of the voters in the SIR.
