An eight-member team of Trinamul MPs met the Bengal chief electoral officer on Saturday to point out that the BJP was gaining undue advantage from a rule tweak which allows outsiders as booth agents, hours before the surfacing of an unauthenticated audio clip that seemed to discuss this very issue.

In the clip, two senior leaders are purportedly discussing the importance of allowing political workers from other parts of the district to function as booth agents and how that could help tide over organisational deficiencies.

“I have been in electoral politics since 1971. I have never seen such a thing happening. For the polls to be free and fair, the process has to be clean. Booth agents are selected from the locality of the booths because they know the voters, they can identify false voters. The EC has changed this provision without consulting any other political party. This has to be removed,” said Subrata Mukherjee, veteran Trinamul minister.

The audio clip could not be independently authenticated. In the conversation, the two callers address each other as “Shishir” and Mukul-da”. The discussion is about booth agents. Excerpts:

Caller 1: Shishir?

Caller 2: Mukul da.

Caller 1: When is the EC coming? Day after tomorrow?

Caller 2: 21st. They will call us.

Caller 1: I will also come along.

Caller 2: OK.

Caller 1: Whatever points you are making, add two on my behalf. We want in Bengal that there should not be any specific rules about deployment of agents in the polling booth. A person from any place can be the agent in a booth in any part of the state, as long as he is a resident, a voter. Otherwise, there is a certain percentage of booths where nobody can go. You can understand what I am trying to say.

Caller 2: Understood. Understood. Clear.

Caller 1: This can be done by an administrative order. There is no law regarding this. We have to tell them and explain why we want this. Second thing is the voters slip which are not distributed _ these have to be returned to the observer.

Caller 2: I have already written about this.

Speculation is rife on the identities of the callers. Going by the names, sources said, “Mukul da” mentioned by Caller 2 could refer to BJP leader Mukul Roy, a one-time Mamata confidante who switched over in November 2017. Roy could not be reached for comment.

It is also not when the purported conversation took place, or if the “21st” mentioned by Caller 2, refers to January 21, 2021 when a full bench of the Election Commission had come to Calcutta on a three-day visit.

Veteran Trinamul minister Mukherjee alleged that since the BJP did not have workers in all booths in Bengal, they had to depend on outsiders from other states to conduct the polls.

“This is not about a loss or a victory in an election. This is about the conventions of parliamentary democracy. Since BJP is the ruling party in the Centre, they can do anything,” he said.