A meeting between a four-member Trinamool Congress delegation and Chief Election Commissioner Ganesh Kumar in New Delhi on Wednesday sparked a fraught confrontation with an unprecedented attack by the poll panel and a sharp reaction by the political party.
The delegation included Rajya Sabha MPs Derek O’Brien, Sagarika Ghose, Menaka Guruswamy and party spokesperson Saket Gokhale, and submitted a memorandum demanding impartiality from officials involved in the electoral process.
The meeting became heated almost immediately. Minutes after the delegation left, ECI posted on its official handle The post was published in English and Hindi.
Read also | TMC accuses World Bank CEO of violating MCC; Submit a complaint to the Chief Election Commissioner
The Transitional Military Council responded forcefully. “Our live conversation with @ECISVEEP. This time, the elections must be: Free from Delhi’s control. Free from political bias, free from selective targeting, free from double standards,” the party posted on its X website.
O’Brien said the meeting lasted minutes. He said: “The Chief Electoral Commissioner told us within seven minutes of the meeting to ‘f*** off’… The meeting started at 10:02 a.m. and ended at 10:07 a.m. What you saw today is a disgrace. I challenge the Electoral Commissioner to release the video or audio of what happened today.”
However, senior ECI officials said Kumar asked O’Brien to maintain decorum in the committee room, stating that shouting and inappropriate behavior was not appropriate. Officials said O’Brien raised his voice at ECI and asked the CEC not to speak.
Read also | CEC said ‘get lost’, Derek O’Brien accused of ‘screaming’: TMC vs EC episode explained
The meeting came a day after ECI deleted nearly nine million names as part of the Special Intensive Review (SIR) in Bengal. Of the six million cases placed in the controversial “logical inconsistency” category, about 2.71 million were found to be ineligible.
Goss wondered how to win back real voters. He asked: “If they are deleted and have to appeal to a court with the electoral lists frozen for the first stage, how will a real voter be included in the list?”
The West Bengal Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in two phases on April 23 and 29, with the counting of votes scheduled for May 4.
