Suvendu Adhikari, Chief of the Opposition within the West Bengal Meeting, on Friday wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar complain towards Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s assertion about Kumar’s appointment.
“The Trinamool Congress chief accused the BJP of making an attempt to affect electoral processes within the nation by filling up positions such because the Chief Election Commissioner with ‘BJP folks’, and that by doing so, the BJP is making an attempt to affect the Election Fee of India,” he wrote.
Banerjee on Thursday had stated that Kumar was a former secretary within the co-operation division below the Union House Minister, whereas addressing a TMC mega assembly on the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata.
Waving a listing containing names of alleged faux voters, the TMC supremo had stated, “I’ve examples from all districts. Right here it’s. Names of individuals from Haryana and Gujarat are there with names of Bengal residents and with the identical EPIC card. Faux voters are being added on-line.”
“I had respect for the Election Fee. However now it appears they’re full of BJP-minded folks,” she stated, “If required, we’ll protest indefinitely in entrance of the EC workplace to demand the removing of pretend names from the voter roll.”
Together with the letter, Adhikari hooked up a video clip (a translated model in English) of the related portion of the Chief Minister’s speech the place she was heard referring to the CEC’s appointment.
He wrote, “I want to deliver to your consideration that the Chief Minister of West Bengal Smt Mamata Banerjee… questioned your appointment because the Chief Election Commissioner.”
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Adhikari wrote, “She very effectively is aware of that your appointment has been made as per the provisions of the brand new regulation — the ‘Chief Election Commissioner and different Election Commissioners (Appointment, Situations of Service and Time period of Workplace) Act, 2023’. The regulation specifies that the Prime Minister, the Chief of Opposition in Lok Sabha and a Union Minister nominated by the Prime Minister could be the members of the Choice panel for appointing the CEC or ECs, which (would) be completed by embracing a bipartisan and impartial collegium-based appointment system. Beforehand, the norm was that the senior-most Election Commissioner (could be) elevated as CEC, which may have been adopted whereas elevating you as effectively since you had been the senior-most after the outgoing CEC Shri Rajiv Kumar. Nonetheless, the brand new regulation mandated the choice course of… the Choice Panel thought of different names too earlier than finalising your title.”
He added, “It isn’t attainable that… Banerjee is unaware that the Election Fee had already clarified that there was no irregular sample in voter deletions in… Maharashtra as alleged by the Congress occasion and a rule-based course of was adopted with transparency in preparation of the electoral rolls. The (ECI) on December 24, 2024 rejected the baseless fees introduced by the Congress as ‘factually incorrect and deceptive’ and the Congress’s claims of ‘arbitrary deletion’ and ‘subsequent addition’ in electoral rolls and dominated out any discrepancies in voter turnout information within the Maharashtra Meeting elections.”
Adhikari “requested” the CEC to take cognisance of what he known as a “the deliberate try to malign the Election Fee of India and convey disrepute to the constitutional authority by making false accusations with the motive to tarnish its picture among the many public.”
