Kolkata: Controversy erupted at a meeting of a delegation of West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress with the full bench of the Election Commission, headed by the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, here on Monday, with a minister, who was part of the team, “raising her voice” during the interaction, a poll panel source said.
“During the meeting, a leader from the TMC spoke in a raised voice, following which the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) advised her to lower her tone and submit her demands and suggestions in a constructive manner,” the source said.
On a specific issue raised during the discussion, the Commission stated that the matter is currently sub-judice and therefore refrained from making any comments.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Finance (Independent Charge), Chandrima Bhattacharya, accused the CEC of misbehaving with her in the course of the interaction.
“I am a woman. But even then, during the course of interaction, he told me —’Don’t shout’. The CEC does not have a basic sense of respect towards women. That is why he had deleted the names of several women voters from the voters’ list. If your name is deleted from the voters’ list, it is your responsibility to prove that you are a genuine voter. You have to stand in line. The CEC should remember that shouting towards women or misbehaving with them is not part of his job,” Bhattacharya told media persons after coming out of the meeting.
She also said that during the interaction, the CEC refused to discuss anything related to the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) in West Bengal. “He said that since the SIR matter was in the Supreme Court, the matter could not be discussed in the meeting. Then, why did he call us for the meeting when we are not supposed to speak about the SIR issue? Was approaching the Supreme Court a crime on our part? We approached the apex court for the sake of common voters,” she added.
State Municipal Affairs & Urban Development Minister and Kolkata Mayor, Firhad Hakim, who was also a member of the delegation, said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had been trying to create a misconception that West Bengal had been flooded with illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators.
“But did the Commission get any evidence in support of the BJP’s claim during the last two months of the revision exercise? Rather, the innocent people were harassed in the name of the SIR. The Commission had a mistake in framing the revision rules as per the demands of the BJP. Our plea is that not a single genuine voter should be excluded from the voters’ list,” he said.
Meanwhile, the ECI had stated the proceedings of interactions with different political parties earlier in the day and said that all political parties urged the Commission to take stringent measures to curb the aggression of anti-social elements and ensure that there is no intimidation of voters during the forthcoming elections.
The Commission also said that most political parties called for one or two-phase polling in West Bengal this time. “The CEC assured the political parties that elections in India are held as per law and the ECI will not leave any stone unturned in ensuring an impartial, transparent, and free and fair poll in West Bengal. The ECI is committed to Zero Tolerance towards violence,” the statement read.
(IANS)
