Former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has slammed Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar following a media report on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) that highlighted discrepancies flagged by two ECs, Vivek Joshi and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu. Mamata has demanded the arrest of Kumar and others, including Deputy Election Commissioner Gyanesh Bharati and Director General of IT Seema Khanna. The MAITC supremo also called for criminal proceedings to be initiated against Kumar.
“Such a big, scandalous story, we have never seen in our lives. This Election Commissioner must be arrested. He has no moral authority to continue. BJP must see, they cannot disrupt our Constitution,” said Mamata Banerjee. She added that she would meet Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and other Opposition party leaders in the coming days.
As part of the INDIA alliance, Mamata is looking to step up her opposition to the BJP in her state. Last week, the Election Commission issued a directive freezing the name and symbol of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) and assigned new party names to two factions of the TMC.
The MAITC chairperson also referred to the impeachment notice given the Lok Sabha Speaker, which was rejected in April this year. Mamata called for a public uprising against glaring revelations about the SIR process. She alleged that the findings pointed to the apex polling body, led by Kumar, working in favour of the BJP. She also mentioned that the SIR exercise was being used unfairly to help the BJP win elections in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and West Bengal.
“It is a Joint venture company in the country today. BJP, Gyanesh Kumar and Seema Khanna. They forcefully looted Bengal elections. Will they be able to reverse that? If they have one ounce of morality, give our elections back. You(BJP) forcefully won elections. You did not win,” said Mamata.
Mamata appeared in person before the Supreme Court to seek the inclusion of voters who, she claimed, had been unlawfully left out in the SIR process. The former West Bengal CM has called for the restoration of the old voter list and for elections to be held again based on the previous list.
Earlier in the day, TMC MPs Abhishek Banerjee, Derek O’Brien and Mahua Moitra also slammed the EC after the media report on the SIR emerged.
