Mamata Banerjee Walks Out of Election Commission Meeting, Accuses CEC of Insult During Voter List Row

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar was really rude to her during a meeting in Delhi on Monday. This meeting was about the Special Intensive Revision of the rolls in West Bengal. People are already talking a lot about this issue in West Bengal because of the assembly elections that are coming up soon. The Special Intensive Revision of the rolls in West Bengal is a big deal and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is not happy, with how the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar treated her.

Mamata Banerjee went to Nirvachan Sadan, which’s the main office of the Election Commission. She wore a shawl to show that she was protesting. Mamata Banerjee was accompanied by Abhishek Banerjee, who’s the national general secretary of the Trinamool Congress and Kalyan Banerjee who is a member of parliament, for the Trinamool Congress. Some other people also joined them. These people said they were affected by the changes made to the voter list. The Trinamool Congress said that eight people who were affected by the voter list changes were part of the group that went with Mamata Banerjee.

An hour after the meeting started Banerjee and her team walked out. When Banerjee talked to reporters outside the chief minister said that the delegation had decided to boycott the Chief Election Commissioner. Banerjee said that she felt insulted and disrespected during the meeting, with the Chief Election Commissioner. She said that she had never seen the Chief Election Commissioner behave like this before. The Chief Election Commissioner is an important person and Banerjee said that she did not like the way the Chief Election Commissioner treated her.

Banerjee said the Chief Election Commissioner is really arrogant and unfair. She went to the Election Commission because she wanted justice for the voters. She came back feeling disappointed. Banerjee used strong words to say that people are making false statements and nobody is listening to what common people like voters have to say. She also said that the Election Commission is removing voters from the voter list without a good reason. Banerjee feels that the Election Commission is not doing what is right, for the voters.

The chief minister said the way the Chief Election Commissioner is behaving is similar to how Jagdeep Dhankhar behaved when he was the governor of West Bengal. She thinks they are both doing what the Bharatiya Janata Party tells them to do. Mamata Banerjee said that she has respect, for people who hold positions but they should not do things that are not right.

She said that people will remember what they do and that no one stays in a position forever. The chief minister is talking about the Chief Election Commissioner. She is saying that history will judge the actions of the Chief Election Commissioner.

Mamata Banerjee remembered some election officials. She talked about Chief Election Commissioners like S Y Quraishi and T N Seshan. Mamata Banerjee said they were independent election officials. The Chief Election Commissioners never did things to help any party. They always made sure the election institution was respected. Mamata Banerjee thinks that election officials like S Y Quraishi and T N Seshan were really good, at their jobs.

The Election Commission completely turned down the allegations made by Banerjee. The Election Commission put out a statement saying that the Chief Election Commissioner told the group that the Election Commission will make sure the law is followed. The Election Commission warned that if anyone tries to scare or stop the people working on the SIR the Election Commission will take action against them. The Election Commission wants to make it clear that the law will be applied to anyone who tries to interfere with the work of the Election Commission, on the SIR.

The Commission has some problems with the way Trinamool Congress leaders and workers are behaving. They say that some Trinamool Congress MLAs used bad language and even threatened election officials, including the Chief Election Commissioner. The Commission talked about times when people damaged offices of Electoral Registration Officers. Said that some officials who worked on the voter list were transferred without permission. The Commission is really worried, about the conduct of Trinamool Congress leaders and workers.

The Election Commission said that there were problems with paying the people who work at the voting booths. They were supposed to get 18,000 rupees. So far they have only gotten 7,000 rupees. The Election Commission also talked about some security issues, with the data. Said that nothing has been done to the officials who were accused of these issues. The Election Commission is not happy that the officials who were accused have not been punished yet.

The Special Intensive Revision process started in West Bengal in November year. They removed around 5.82 million names from the draft rolls. The Special Intensive Revision process in West Bengal had a deletion rate of 7.6 percent. The Election Commission says this is the deletion rate, among states that will have elections this summer.. West Bengal has seen a lot of protests and controversies related to the Special Intensive Revision process.

The Trinamool Congress is really against the Special Identification Report. They think that people might have problems with it and some mistakes could mean that some voters are left out. The Bharatiya Janata Party thinks it is an idea and says that some people are not supposed to be voting. Mamata Banerjee has written to the Chief Election Commissioner times she has met with officials, from the districts and she has asked the people who work for her party to help voters fill out the right forms. The Election Commission says they are doing everything fairly and that they are not doing anything with the Special Identification Report and the voting process.

The TMC also brought families of booth level officers and voters who died by suicide or had heart attacks because of the stress from the SIR process. The TMC said that some people were even listed as dead in records when they were actually alive. The TMC included eight of these families, in the Delhi delegation. The TMC wanted to show how the SIR process affected the families of booth level officers and voters.

When someone asked if her party, the TMC would not take part in the assembly elections Banerjee said no to that idea. She thought that not taking part in the elections would be a bad mistake. Banerjee said the TMC would fight in a way. She said that central agencies are getting in the way of how the state’s run. Banerjee also said that Bengal is being treated unfairly on purpose like the Presidents Rule is already, in place even though it is not official.

Meanwhile, in Kolkata, a 14 member BJP delegation led by Suvendu Adhikari met Governor C V Ananda Bose and submitted a memorandum. Adhikari accused the TMC of creating chaos at voter hearing centres. He alleged that under Mamata Banerjee’s leadership, some officials deliberately made mistakes in voters’ names and ages, leading to harassment of millions of people. The BJP demanded suspension of certain officials and registration of FIRs, claiming it had specific information against three district election officers.