Kolkata: Another Booth Level Officer (BLO) reportedly died by suicide in the Ranibandh Assembly constituency of Bankura district, West Bengal, on Sunday.
The body of Haradhan Mandal, a primary school headmaster and assigned BLO for booth number 206 in Ranibandh, was recovered hanging from a ceiling fan in a classroom at Rajakata Majherpara Primary School. A suicide note was also found at the scene.
Preliminary investigations suggest that Mandal was under immense work pressure due to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. According to police, the note read: "I can't take the pressure anymore. Goodbye. I am responsible for this. No one else is involved."
Family members said Mandal had left home around 10 a.m. to collect documents for voters in his booth but did not return. His son, Soham Mandal, said, "My father couldn't handle the pressure of the SIR work. That's why he committed suicide. There is immense work pressure. There is no training."
Following the incident, Trinamool Congress All-India general secretary Abhishek Banerjee slammed the Election Commission (EC), claiming the suicide was caused by the inhuman pressure of the hurried SIR process. Using his X handle, Banerjee wrote:
Also Read:Assam will become Bangladesh’s part if Muslims increase: Himanta Sarma
"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 Mandal of 249 Ranibandh AC, Part No. 206, died by suicide. In his suicide note, he explicitly held the inhuman nature of the task responsible for his decision."
Banerjee further claimed that over 50 lives have been lost in West Bengal since the SIR process began. He accused the EC of conducting the process to benefit the BJP, stating:
"Over 50 lives have already been lost to panic, anxiety, exhaustion and fear engineered by a voter-cleansing operation designed for the BJP’s electoral gain. 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."
He also criticised the BJP, saying: "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."
The Ranibandh police recovered the body and sent it to Bankura Sammilani Medical College for post-mortem. Investigations are ongoing.
With IANS inputs