West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee criticised the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday over the controversy around the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) official seal on a document circulated by the Kerala chief electoral officer (CEO), saying ECI was “not impartial”.
“I want to show something that proves ECI is not impartial. The cat is out of the bag,” Banerjee told reporters at the Kolkata airport, holding up a newspaper report on the Kerala incident. “Why are you playing from behind? Play face to face. Everybody understands what’s going on,” said Banerjee, whose Trinamool Congress is seeking re-election for the fourth time in the two-phase state polls in April.
The Kerala CEO told the media that the incident resulted from a “clerical mistake”. The BJP seal was found on a document of ECI’s guidelines regarding publication of criminal antecedents of candidates. In a statement, the Kerala CEO’s office said that the BJP’s state unit had recently approached it seeking clarification on the 2019 guidelines. Along with the request, the party had submitted a photocopy of the original directive from 2019, it said. “The party’s seal was present on that specific copy provided by them. Due to an oversight, the office failed to notice the party symbol on the submitted document and inadvertently redistributed it to other political parties as part of the requested clarification,” the office said.
In north Bengal’s Siliguri, BJP’s chief whip in the state Assembly, Shankar Ghosh, said, “I can comment on the Kerala incident only after ECI issues an official statement.”
Banerjee made her remarks before heading to north Bengal for an election campaign.
“Is this a clerical mistake?” Banerjee quipped. “I want to make a request to all political parties. Let us fight against the dictatorship, the one-party autocratic rule of the government and its agencies. It is not that I want support from any party. Let us save democracy. Forget who’s Left and who’s Right. Stand by the people,” she said.
“In Bengal, 73 returning officers were transferred yesterday. The returning officer from Nandigram has been transferred to Bhawanipore. Why? Earlier, more than 70 IAS and IPS officers were transferred to other states,” Banerjee said.
“Was the Nandigram returning officer brought to Bhawanipore under instructions from the traitor?”Banerjee said, indirectly referring to the leader of the opposition in the Bengal legislative assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, who joined the BJP in 2020 and is now contesting against Banerjee in her traditional Bhawanipore seat in south Kolkata.
Adhikari is also contesting from East Midnapore district’s Nandigram, his seat since 2016 where he defeated Banerjee in 2021, compelling her to continue as chief minister by winning a bypoll in Bhawanipore.
Banerjee took a swipe at ECI over the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral roll in Benal.
“Why was the first supplementary voters’ list published at midnight yesterday? The lists have not been circulated in the districts till now,” Banerjee said.
“The supplementary list has been published mainly because I moved court. Why is the electoral roll not transparent? Are they putting names of people from one political party only? This will become apparent once the entire list is out in the open,” Banerjee said.
www.hindustantimes.com
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