West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ripped into the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar after meeting with him at Nirvachan Sadan in Delhi on Monday.
Calling the CEC “extremely arrogant,” Mamata said that he is “a great liar” and that she has never “seen such an Election Commissioner.”
“I said that I respect your chair. I said that no chair is permanent for anyone. One day, you too will have to go. Don’t create this precedent,” Mamata said, addressing the media following the meeting.
“He is giving a briefing after our queries. All of it is a garbage of lies.”
She further said that she has “zero hopes and expectations from this ECI, referring to the commission as “an agent of BJP”, adding, “The attitude was such that he [the CEC] is a zamindar and we are his servants.”
“You first deleted 58 lakh voters, and you didn’t give them a chance to defend themselves as well. Who is doing this using AI?” she questioned.
Mamata further alleged that it was the work of the BJP IT cell.
“It is nobody from the EC. It is being done by the BJP IT cell. Even when a murderer doesn’t get a lawyer and pleads to the judiciary to defend himself, he is allowed to do so. But, you removed 58 lakh voters in the very beginning through Seema Khanna and the use of AI,” she said, referring to the Director General for IT at the Election Commission.
“Who is Seema Khanna who deleted 58 lakh votes? She is a BJP worker,” Mamata alleged.
Explaining how names were being deleted, she said, “I write Mamata Banerjee in English. However, in Bengali, I write Mamata Bandhopadhyay. Chatterjee in English is Chattopadhyay in Bengali. In this way, it [the ECI] has removed all the names that it could not understand [as being the same].”
She further said that it was important to have the duplicate voters names to be removed, adding that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) had flagged the case of duplicate voters.
“That should have been rectified, and the names of genuine voters should have stayed. But they have used AI to remove the names of married women whose addresses have changed post-marriage,” she alleged.
She further termed the SIR an ”anti-women move” and alleged that the minorities and the younger generation were not included in the electoral rolls.
Referring to the people in the TMC delegation that met with the CEC, Mamata said, “These people are mostly SCs and STs. Here, we have only two Muslims. The rest are Hindus. Are SCs, STs, and minorities not humans?”
She further questioned the timing of the SIR in the poll-bound states.
“You could have left the four election-bound states and could have conducted the SIR in other states. You could have done the SIR in these states later in a planned way. But you didn’t do it,” she said.
She further alleged that the SIR was being carried out in Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu while BJP-ruled states were excluded.
“SIR didn’t happen in Assam since there is a BJP government. You didn’t carry out SIR in the north-eastern states,” she said.
“In BJP-ruled states, you will get the time to put everyone’s name on the voter list. In our state, 58 lakh voters were removed by Seema Khanna using AI. They were not given a chance to defend themselves. There are more mismatches and mismapping here,” she alleged.
Mamata referred to the SIR exercise as “totally undemocratic and unparliamentary”.
“If you ask me to bring my father’s birth certificate, I will not be able to do so. Back then, institutional delivery was rare. We were also born in our homes. There are countless people like this in the country. Institutional delivery is a modern concept,” she said.
Referring to the death of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) in the state, Mamata said that over 150 people have died due to panic and anxiety, as well as the heavy workload faced by BLOs.
“I have come with 100 people. Fifty of them are family members of those who have died due to SIR. The other fifty are those who have been marked dead despite being alive. Just see! They are alive, yet they have been marked as dead,” she said.
Slamming the CEC further, Mamata said that Gyanesh Kumar was working at the behest of the BJP and that he too will face consequences like Dhankar.
“You are not doing inclusion; you are doing deletion. After removing 58 lakh voters, you have planned to remove another 1.4 crore voters. That means you have put 2 crore voters under the mismatch and mismap category,” she alleged.
Turning her focus to the BJP, Mamata said that the party won in Bihar, Haryana and Maharashtra due to manipulation that could not be caught.
“We have a strong organisation. I can challenge, and I can bring lakhs of people to Delhi,” Mamata said.
She said the DEO is an authorised official under the Commission’s statutory framework, but observers were brought in from outside, adding that even if the DEO, ERO and BLO clear a case, an observer with no statutory authority can still delete the name.
She said documents such as domicile certificates, land certificates, Aadhaar cards, land records and matriculation certificates are accepted in every state, but none are recognised in Bengal for the SIR process.
“People in Bengal are carrying trunks full of documents, yet they are put into the ‘not found’ category in terms of evidence,” she said.
Mamata asked whether living people are expected to die to provide proof, said many have already died, and added that the ECI must take responsibility.
“Elderly people are being taken to the hearing venue in ambulances. A pregnant lady had to be taken to the hearing venue from the operating theatre. Elderly people are made to wait futilely for 8–10 hours before they are sent back. Will the people elect the government, or will the ECI select the government before the polls?” she questioned.
She questioned whether the exercise was being carried out to secure District Magistrate posts for the CEC’s daughter and son-in-law.
“I said that if you wish to conduct the election in this fashion, then we will fight on the ground against this. You have the BJP’s power with you. We have the power of the people,” Mamata added.
She said she had written several letters but received no response.
She further questioned, “Why did you bring 8,100 micro-observers only to Bengal? Why have you brought BJP-minded officers from Tripura to Bengal who are deleting names? BLOs, DEOs, DMs, EROs, and AEROs have no power. However, in the election statutory books, there is no role mentioned for the roll observer and micro-observer.”
Mamata alleged that verdicts of the Supreme Court were being deliberately violated, said authorities neither listened to the people nor allowed media access, and questioned whether the country could function this way.
“Do you think the BJP will remain in power forever? Just one issue was raised in Parliament today, and there was such chaos.”
“Today, you [the CEC] might be able to save your chair, but tomorrow you will not be able to save it. The previous CECs never worked like a parrot of a party. Since we were insulted and humiliated, we have boycotted the meeting,” she added.
“If the BJP is with him, then it must be remembered that the people are with us. We will fight this out on the streets. I will also see how long the BJP stays in power and how long such behaviour continues. I will let you know the next step tomorrow after discussing it with the party,” Mamata told the media.
She said the demand was only for SIR to be conducted, but not hurriedly on the eve of elections by removing 2 crore voters.
She added that even the wives of two sitting High Court judges had received SIR notices, along with Nobel laureates, poets and cricketers, and warned that the public would soon respond in kind.
“We will not boycott the elections. We will not commit this mistake. We will fight and win,” she said.
She alleged that the administration had been effectively taken over for the past six months, paralysing governance and creating a situation akin to President’s Rule, with Bengal being specifically targeted. She said the CEC, while occupying the chair, posed a threat to the country, adding that her allegations were against him personally, not the institution.
“I said that I have faith in him, and that is why we came. But he is not ready to listen. He does whatever the BJP instructs him to do. Just look at the profile of the observers. They are from Tripura. They are cadres of the BJP,” Mamata said.
