Former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday demanded the arrest of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and fresh Assembly elections in the state using the pre-SIR voter list.
Her remarks came after The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections to several decisions during the nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, including issues concerning deletion of names.
"It has now been proven that the BJP and the EC looted the West Bengal assembly polls," Banerjee said during a Facebook Live session.
"There will be pan-India protests till Gyanesh Kumar remains CEC. He must be immediately arrested and put behind bars. The chair of the CEC is not for a person like him. It's another fight for freedom, this time from the compromised CEC, and the BJP that has destroyed India," she added.
Calls for fresh polls with old voter list
Banerjee also called for fresh Assembly elections in West Bengal using the voter list that existed before the SIR exercise.
"Re-election must be held in West Bengal with the old voter list," she said.
She added that INDIA bloc partners had discussed the issue and would meet soon.
The Indian Express report claimed that Sandhu and Joshi had formally objected at least 14 times over 10 months to decisions and orders related to the SIR exercise, including some that they allegedly said were taken without their knowledge.
The Election Commission, however, has maintained that decisions concerning SIR were taken unanimously with the approval of all three commissioners.
TMC factional dispute adds to political backdrop
Banerjee's remarks also come amid a separate dispute over the TMC's organisational identity.
The Election Commission recently froze the use of the 'All India Trinamool Congress' name and its reserved 'twin flowers-and-grass' symbol amid a factional dispute over control of the party.
For the October 6 bypolls, the poll panel subsequently allotted separate interim names and symbols to the two factions. The Mamata Banerjee-led faction was allotted 'Mamata All India Trinamool Congress' and the 'football player' symbol.
The rival faction led by Arup Roy was allotted 'Democratic Trinamool Congress' and the 'envelope' symbol.