The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and West Bengal’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal are facing a police complaint in Purulia district following the tragic death of an elderly man. The family of Durjan Majhi, a former Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) employee who died by suicide on Monday, has accused the top officials of mental harassment and abetment to suicide, claiming the high-pressure Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process drove him to take his own life.
The incident has sparked intense tension in Chautala village, located within the Para Assembly constituency. According to his family, Majhi had been spiraling into a state of deep anxiety ever since the SIR verification began. Although he had submitted his enumeration forms, he was summoned for a hearing, a development that reportedly left him terrified of being stripped of his citizenship or deported to Bangladesh.
On Monday, the day he was scheduled to appear for the hearing, he told his family he was going to call a rickshaw to take him to the venue. Instead, his body was later recovered from the nearby railway tracks, with witnesses suggesting he jumped in front of a train. The tragedy has quickly turned into a political flashpoint in the district. Kiriti Acharya, the Purulia district president of the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP), lashed out at the Election Commission, arguing that the SIR has created a climate of fear that is literally costing lives. He framed the suicide as a direct consequence of "harassment in the name of verification."
On the other hand, the local BJP leadership has dismissed these claims as a political maneuver. District BJP leader Jayadipta Chattaraj called the death a "coincidental accident" and accused the Trinamool Congress of trying to sabotage the voter roll cleanup by exploiting a tragedy for political gain.
As the police start an investigation into the complaint in Purulia, the election preparations for the upcoming 2026 elections have escalated to the human cost that has raw nerves. Although the Election Commission has attempted to relieve some of the pressures involved, such as the doorstep hearing for the elderly, the possibility of disenfranchisement that the common man fears seems to remain paramount.
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