New Delhi: The ongoing row regarding Chief Election Commisioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar has brought together the most bitter of political rivals with Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) faction opening communication links with the CPI(M).
Mamata is learnt to have spoken at length with CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby over the phone on Friday evening. This was an effort to convene a meeting of the INDI Alliance and other Opposition parties as early as next week over demands for Kumar’s removal and criminal proceedings against him, as reported by News18.
A joint press conference is also being planned as part of a wider Opposition campaign.
The phone call came after Baby wrote to Opposition leaders seeking a meeting over developments surrounding the CEC. Mamata first sent a written response to Baby and subsequently spoke to him over the phone on Friday.
She reportedly urged the CPI(M) leader to convene a meeting of INDI Alliance parties at the earliest, sources revealed. Baby apparently proposed bringing other Opposition parties into the meeting as well. Mamata is said to have agreed, with the two leaders discussing the way forward at length.
She also called for Opposition parties to come together and take the issue to the streets at the earliest.
The outreach has also extended to the Congress, with her TMC faction, through Mamata and party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, speaking to its top leadership.
The issue erupted after The Indian Express reported about dissent within the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the procedures to be followed during the Special Intensive Review (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi raised objections at least 14 times over the last 10 months, the report said.
The two Election Commissioners apparently said some decisions were taken without their knowledge and flagged concerns over voter registration, deletion and restoration of names, changes to Form 6 and access to the electoral-roll database.
The ECI, however, has rejected suggestions that the objections point to a breakdown within the poll panel. It said differing views and observations were part of institutional deliberations and maintained that decisions taken by the full Commission over the past year, including those concerning the SIR, were unanimous.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav have targeted Kumar and sought his removal.
The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has threatened a nationwide agitation from October 2 unless the CEC steps down.
The BJP, meanwhile, has strongly backed Kumar amid the Opposition offensive. West Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya said the CEC deserved the Padma Bhushan, crediting him with keeping intimidation at bay during this year’s West Bengal elections and taking steps to remove the names of alleged Bangladeshi infiltrators from the electoral rolls.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra also rejected the Opposition’s allegations, arguing that differing views among Election Commissioners during official deliberations were a reflection of the democratic process rather than evidence of wrongdoing.
West Bengal minister Dilip Ghosh also hit out at the Opposition, questioning the political standing of Mamata and the CPI(M) and arguing that neither had much political ground left.