TMC may release next week audio of its meetings with CEC

The Trinamool Congress is contemplating releasing audio recordings of its meetings with Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar amid the ongoing row over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, party sources said on Tuesday.

TMC has recordings of three meetings

They said the recordings are expected to be released next week to highlight the manner in which Kumar interacted with political parties during meetings with the poll panel, including discussions on the technicalities and procedures relating to the election process.

The sources said the TMC has recordings of three meetings and claimed that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi spoke for only a small part of the proceedings.

The recordings, they said, would also show the nature of questions asked by the TMC delegation and the responses from the poll panel.

Party raises objections over EC proceedings

The TMC has been accusing the Election Commission (EC) of adopting a partisan approach in its ongoing hearing into rival claims over the party's organisational control, name and election symbol.

The dispute came before the poll panel after a group led by Ritabrata Banerjee challenged the authority of the existing party organisation and claimed control over the TMC. The Mamata Banerjee-led side has rejected the claim.

The sources said the party had considered releasing the recordings earlier but decided against doing so at the time.

The move comes against the backdrop of a fresh controversy over the functioning of the poll panel following a report in The Indian Express that Election Commissioners Sandhu and Joshi had formally objected on at least 14 occasions over 10 months to decisions and orders concerning, among other things, voter registration, deletion and restoration of names and the handling of electoral-roll data.

The report said Sandhu and Joshi had raised objections to decisions they said were taken without their knowledge or approval, with some communications describing certain steps as "unauthorised" and "illegal".

April meeting triggered recording demand

The TMC's move to consider releasing the recordings also comes months after an acrimonious exchange between the party and the poll panel in April.

On April 8, a TMC delegation met the full Election Commission in New Delhi.

After the meeting, Rajya Sabha leader and party joint secretary Derek O'Brien alleged that Kumar told the delegation to "get lost" at the end of the seven-minute interaction.

The EC, however, said its chief had given the TMC leaders a "straight talk" and accused O'Brien of shouting at the election commissioners and asking the CEC not to speak.

O'Brien had then challenged the EC to release the recording or transcript of the meeting, while the poll panel maintained that the West Bengal elections would be "fear-free, violence-free, intimidation-free, and inducement-free".