Showdown at Nirvachan Sadan as Mamata, supporters arrive in black
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday launched a scathing attack on Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, calling him “arrogant and a liar” who works on the BJP’s directions after meeting him at the headquarters of the Election Commission of India (ECI) in New Delhi.
Talking to the media after coming out of the ECI headquarters, CM Banerjee accused the poll body of working as the BJP’s dalal (middleman). “So many people have died, who is responsible? The ECI is responsible. They are working at the behest of the BJP,” Banerjee alleged “They behaved very badly with us, I said I am sorry we came here for justice; we did not get that, and you are lying. He is a great liar...,” she said.
Banerjee, along with TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee and party MP Kalyan Banerjee, arrived at the ECI with a group of people declared dead in the SIR exercise. As a mark of protest, Mamata and those present wore black.
“We said we will fight it on the ground. You have the power of the BJP, we have the power of the people. We boycotted the meeting and came out. They have insulted us, humiliated us... I have not seen this type of Election Commission; they are very arrogant ... He talks with an attitude like he is Zamindar (feudal landlord) and we are servants,” she alleged.
However, ECI officials said that the TMC leaders were given a patient hearing.The remarks come amid the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, which Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress have alleged is biased, discriminatory and politically motivated. Earlier in the day, Banerjee and the Delhi police were engaged in claims and counter-claims, with the former alleging harassment of Bengalis and the latter rejecting the accusation.Showdown at Nirvachan Sadan as Mamata, supporters arrive in black Banerjee on Monday also filed a PIL before the Supreme Court challenging the SIR in the State. Expressing an apprehension of immediate and irreversible threat of mass disenfranchisement of eligible voters in the upcoming state assembly elections, Banerjee has sought a direction that the polls be conducted on the basis of the existing rolls prepared last year. In the SC, she has also prayed that the electoral authorities be directed that the cases involving name mismatches or spelling variations in the ‘logical discrepancy’ category not be called for hearing during the ongoing SIR process.
According to an ECI official, TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee spoke first, followed by Mamata Banerjee, , adding that the points raised by them were duly noted down by CEC Kumar and Election Commissioners S S Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. “When the CEC started to respond, the TMC leaders interjected on multiple occasions. She was agitated and left the meeting in a huff,” an official said.
