Mamata Demands CEC's Arrest, Fresh Bengal Polls on Old Voter List
Mamata Banerjee has demanded CEC Gyanesh Kumar's arrest and fresh West Bengal Assembly polls using the pre-SIR voter list, alleging the BJP and the poll panel looted the earlier elections.
Former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday demanded the arrest of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and fresh Assembly elections in the State based on the voter list that existed before the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
Speaking during a Facebook live, she alleged that the BJP and the Election Commission had "looted" the West Bengal Assembly polls held earlier this year. She said protests would continue across the country for as long as Mr. Kumar remained in the poll panel's top post, and called for his immediate arrest. In her words, the office of the CEC was not meant for a person like him, and she described the coming struggle as another fight for freedom — this time against a compromised CEC and a BJP that, she alleged, had damaged India.
Her remarks followed a report that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had flagged multiple problems, including the deletion of names, across various States during the pan-India SIR of electoral rolls. The report said the two commissioners had formally objected at least 14 times over the past ten months to decisions and orders related to the SIR, including some allegedly taken without their knowledge.
The Election Commission has maintained that all decisions concerning the SIR were taken unanimously, with the approval of all three commissioners.
Ms. Banerjee said re-election in West Bengal must be held using the old voter list. She added that partners in the INDIA bloc had discussed the matter and would meet soon.
Her statement comes days after the Election Commission froze the use of the 'All India Trinamool Congress' name and its reserved 'twin flowers-and-grass' symbol amid an escalating factional feud over control of the party. The panel subsequently allotted separate interim identities to the two groups for the October 6 bypolls. The Mamata faction was given the name 'Mamata All India Trinamool Congress' and the 'football player' symbol, while the rival group led by Arup Roy was allotted 'Democratic Trinamool Congress' and the 'envelope' symbol.