Mamata Dismisses Reports of Removal of SEC, Says Poll Process Peaceful

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has dismissed reports of sacking of the state’s election commissioner Rajiva Sinha, though Governor C. V. Ananda Bose backed his accession report, stressing the state’s nomination process for unprecedentedly peaceful rural elections.

On Thursday, Banerjee said removing the SEC is a “stressful process” and must be done through impeachment.

“The SEC cannot be completely removed in this way. The governor himself has cleared the file for Sinha’s appointment as State Election Commissioner,” she added.

Her remarks come a day after the governor “re-reported” the report on Sinha’s accession to the state government on Wednesday. The development comes ahead of the July 8 panchayat elections.

“The SEC impeachment process is very onerous, just like the removal of judges through impeachment,” she said.

Talking about the issue of poll-related violence in the state, Banerjee asserted, “The nomination process for elections in Bengal has never been peaceful. It is our party cadres who have been killed. Some incidents occurred in three or four booths.” Six people were killed and several injured in separate parts of the state.

Banerjee refuted allegations that the opposition was not allowed to submit candidatures and provided data that around 2.3 nominations were submitted to opinion polls.

“Have you ever heard that 2.31 lakh nominations were made for rural polls in any other state? However, the opposition claims that they have not been able to field nominations. Isn’t that ironic?”

The pugnacious TMC chief questioned why central forces had not been sent to Tripura, where the Bharatiya Janata Party won an uncontested 96 percent of the seats, and accused the central government of targeting the state government using central agencies.

“I think the more the central government is behind us, the more they insult Bengalis, the more they try to hinder the progress of Bengalis, the people will give them a proper response. Instead of fighting us politically, they use the central agencies to harass us.”

Supporting the state police, whose impartiality the opposition questions, Banerjee said, “Let them deploy the central forces; it is the people who have the last word in democracy.” The Kolkata High Court on Wednesday directed the West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC) to order more than 82,000 central forces within 24 hours to be deployed for the panchayat elections.

The TMC had earlier cited previous cases, such as the 2013 panchayat elections and subsequent electoral victories, where the TMC prevailed despite the deployment of central forces.

In rural opinion polls conducted five years ago, the TMC won 90 percent of the panchayats and all 22 seats of Zila Parshad. However, this election was marred by widespread violence and misconduct, with the opposition claiming it was prevented from submitting Nominations in several seats across the state.

The state’s three-tier panchayat elections with approximately 5.67 crore voters will exercise its privilege to select representatives for approximately 74,000 seats in Zilla Paris, Samiti panchayat and Gram panchayat.

(This story was not edited by the News18 staff and was published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)