KOLKATA: Hours after attacking the Election Commission for overnight transfers of top bureaucrats and IPS officers in poll-bound West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday again wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, expressing "deep shock" over the functioning of the poll panel.
In a strongly worded letter, her eighth to the CEC, Banerjee alleged that it had "crossed all boundaries of decency and constitutional propriety".
Earlier in the day, she sharpened her attacks on the poll panel in a post on X, writing, “The manner in which the Election Commission has singled out and targeted Bengal is not just unprecedented - it is deeply alarming. Even before the formal notification of elections, more than 50 senior officials including the Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, DGP, ADGs, IGs, DIGs, District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police have been summarily and arbitrarily removed. This is not administrative action rather this is political interference of the highest order.”
She added, “The systematic politicisation of institutions meant to remain impartial is a direct assault on the Constitution. At a time when a deeply flawed SIR process is underway and over 200 lives have already been lost, the conduct of the Commission reflects a clear bias and an uncomfortable submission to political interests, continuing to put the people of Bengal at risk.”
“Supplementary electoral rolls are still not published, in clear disregard of the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s directions, leaving citizens anxious and uncertain. Meanwhile, senior officers from critical agencies like IB, STF and CID are being selectively removed and dispatched out of the state, pointing to a calculated attempt to cripple Bengal’s administrative machinery,” according to the X post. The Trinamool Congress supremo alleged that the BJP is instrumental behind such move initiated by the national poll panel.
“Why is the BJP so desperate? Why this relentless targeting of Bengal and its people? What satisfaction do they derive from forcing citizens, even after 78 years of Independence, to stand in queues and prove their own citizenship,” she asked.
“The contradictions in the Commission’s actions expose its complete collapse of credibility. It claims that removed officers should not be assigned election duties, yet within hours, the same officers are sent out as election observers. The appointment of the Commissioners of Police of Siliguri and Bidhannagar as observers, without even putting replacements in place, left two vital urban centres effectively headless. It was only after this glaring lapse came to light that rushed corrections followed. This is not governance. It reflects chaos, confusion and sheer incompetence being passed off as authority," she wrote.
“This is not incidental, it points to a deliberate design to seize control of West Bengal through coercion and institutional manipulation. What we are witnessing is nothing short of an undeclared emergency and an unpromulgated form of president’s rule driven by political vendetta, not democratic principles. Having failed to win the trust of Bengal’s people, the BJP is now attempting to capture the state through coercion, intimidation, manipulation and the misuse of institutions,” the outgoing CM alleged.
