KOLKATA, Feb 28: Maintaining that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has questioned the “integrity” of CEC Gyanesh Kumar, Leader of Opposition (LoP) in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Friday said he has written to the Election Commission over the matter.
The BJP leader said that the integrity of an officer cannot be questioned if he or she has worked in a particular department or ministry as part of his job.
“She (Banerjee) has made all constitutional bodies in the state defunct and is now questioning the appointment of the CEC which has been done in a transparent manner,” Adhikari said.
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Addressing a press conference after handing over another letter to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, Adhikari claimed that Banerjee had questioned the “integrity” of Kumar as Chief Election Commissioner.
Banerjee had on Thursday raised concerns over the appointment of Gyanesh Kumar as the Chief Election Commissioner, alleging that the BJP was attempting to exert influence over the constitutional body.
Speaking at a TMC state conference at Netaji Indoor Stadium here, Banerjee also accused the BJP of adding fake voters from other states to the electoral rolls with the alleged backing of the Election Commission, claiming that the party had used similar tactics to secure victories in the Delhi and Maharashtra assembly elections.
Adhikari said that a demand has also been placed before the CEO in charge for holding a virtual conference with all senior officials in the districts and assure them that they can work freely without fear.
“The chief minister has made baseless allegations about the integrity of the additional returning officers and other electoral officers,” he said.
Maintaining that the Election Commission is the supreme authority in matters relating to the poll process, the Leader of Opposition said that all the officials in the districts should work fearlessly with integrity.
On the TMC supremo asking TMC leaders to verify voter lists, Adhikari said that a political party does not have any right to interfere in it.
Targeting the BJP, Banerjee instructed TMC leaders and workers to start physically verifying the voters’ list, alleging that the BJP had manipulated it with “the support of the Election Commission of India (ECI)”.
State BJP leaders, led by Adhikari, on Friday handed over to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) a written representation addressed to the Chief Election Commissioner over the issue.
The BJP leaders demanded in the representation that the commission must closely monitor and ensure no outsourced agencies are used in any activity connected with voter lists.
“We have told the CEO that names of any Hindi-speaking or Matua community citizen’s name must not be deleted from the voter list illegally,” he said, maintaining that West Bengal is a mini-India with people from all parts of the country residing in the state.
Alleging that there are 16 lakh double entries of citizens’ names in the electoral rolls in the state, the BJP leader demanded that these entries be corrected immediately.
Alleging that the ruling TMC had been instrumental in getting the names of illegal entrants into the country in the electoral rolls, Adhikari said that a demand has been placed by them to the CEO’s office for inquiry and deleting such names.
“We have demanded that elections be held in West Bengal with biometric fingerprints linking the Aadhar and EPIC cards,” he said. (PTI)
