West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said she walked out of a meeting with chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar at his office in Delhi, accusing him of “insulting, disrespecting and humiliating’ her when a delegation of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) went to meet him in his office in New Delhi on Monday.
“We boycotted the CEC and walked out. We were insulted, disrespected and humiliated. I have never seen this kind of CEC. He is very arrogant. He behaved so badly with us. We meet him to get justice. We never got justice.,” Banerjee told reporters in New Delhi after emerging from Nirvachan Sadan, the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) headquarters.
“I have seen many CECs – SY Quraishi and TN Seshan. They were very strong. They never became a parrot for any political party. They never became a His Master’s voice,” she added.
Banerjee had led a 14-member delegation including TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and MP Kalyan Banerjee, and members of “SIR affected families” from West Bengal.
Banerjee and the TMC have been demanding that the ECI halt the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the state’s electoral roll in the state, alleging that the exercise in its present form would lead to “mass disenfranchisement” and “strike at the foundations of democracy”. Banerjee has also accused the ECI of committing serious irregularities, procedural violations, and administrative lapses.
ECI officials on Monday said the CEC had responded to Mamata Banerjee’s queries and that she still left the meeting at Nirvachan Sadan in a huff. They said the CEC told the delegation that the “rule of law will prevail” and anybody taking the law into their own hands will be dealt with strictly in accordance with the provisions of law and powers vested in the Commission.
The commission also cited incidents of vandalism at the ERO (SDO/BDO) offices by TMC workers and said there should be no pressure or interference of any kind on officers engaged in SIR work.
Banerjee said the TMC would fight it out with the ECI and not boycott the elections expected to be held later this year. “They (ECI) have taken over the government at least six months before the assembly elections. They are not allowing the government to work. They are behaving as if President’s Rule has been imposed in the state,” she said.
In Kolkata, a 14-member BJP delegation led by Suvendu Adhikari met with governor CV Ananda Bose to accuse TMC of resorting to hooliganism in the hearing centres. “SIR is not being held for the first time. She wants to stop the SIR. But she won’t succeed. There will be no fake, duplicate and dead voters, Bangladeshis and Rohingyas in the voters’ list. Let her scream how much she wants. Chor machaye shor,” he added.
