A delegation of the Trinamool Congress met the Election Commission officials on Wednesday, accusing prime minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah of creating differences between the people of different caste and community.
The Trinamool delegation also demanded action against the prime minister and the home minister for violating the model code of conduct. The Trinamool delegation included Derek O’Brien, Kalyan Banerjee, Pratima Mandal and Santanu Sen.
In its memorandum submitted to the poll panel titled “Malfunctioning of Election Commission during polls in West Bengal 2021”, the Trinamool said, “We bring to your notice the deplorable state of affairs of the Election Commission in respect of its approach towards Trinamool Congress vis-a-vis the BJP in West Bengal during the ongoing Assembly polls.”
The Trinamool categorised its memorandum into three parts -- inaction of the EC, under action of the EC and over action of the EC.
Citing the example of inaction on the part of the Commission, the Trinamool highlighted two speeches made by the Prime Minister alleging the role of Trinamool workers and chief minister Mamata Banerjee behind the deaths of four people in Cooch Behar, besides appeasing the Matua and Namasudra community voters in the state.
It also cited a press conference held by Shah, where he had alleged that Banerjee did not speak a single word over the death of Anand Burman in the state. The Trinamool accused Shah of trying to invoke false narratives of caste discrimination.
Citing the example of under action, the Trinamool alleged in its memorandum that one BJP chief minister referred to “Pakistan” in his speech and also called Banerjee “Begum”, while one BJP leader justified the killings in Cooch Behar while another questioned why only four people died and not more.
Citing over action by the EC, the Trinamool memorandum said that Banerjee was banned from campaigning for 24 hours.
The Trinamool memorandum said that it is confident that the people of West Bengal will respond appropriately to such illegal acts of the EC by voting in favour of the party candidates.
“We urge the Election Commission to display some fairness in its approach. Currently, its actions are devoid of all fairness. We urge the EC to ensure a level playing field in the last four phases of the ongoing Assembly elections in West Bengal,” it added.