Mamata Banerjee and CPI(M) chief speak amid shared concerns over Election Commission

Former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee spoke by telephone with CPI(M) general secretary M.A. Baby on Friday, with both leaders expressing concern about what they described as declining credibility of the Election Commission. The contact is notable because their parties have been rivals in West Bengal for decades.

Ms. Banerjee left the Congress to establish the Trinamool Congress in 1997, arguing that the State’s Congress leadership was too accommodating towards the CPI(M)-led Left Front. She defeated the Left Front government in 2011 after its 34-year rule.

The call followed an outreach by Mr. Baby to political parties inside and outside the Opposition INDIA bloc. In a letter dated September 23, he referred to reports that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had allegedly disregarded objections from fellow Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi over decisions connected with the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.

Mr. Baby urged parties to meet and discuss what he called an extraordinary situation affecting constitutional values and citizens’ right to vote. He also wrote to the DMK, BRS, AAP, BJD and the unregistered Cockroach Janata Party, according to the report.

Sources said Ms. Banerjee was among the first leaders to respond. She agreed that the credibility of the Election Commission and Indian democracy was at stake.

The two leaders’ conversation was described by sources as warm. Ms. Banerjee also reportedly told Mr.

Baby that she had contacted Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi to seek an early meeting of the INDIA bloc. Although the Trinamool Congress and CPI(M) remain part of the bloc, they have maintained political distance. The conversation therefore represents their first direct contact in several decades, according to the report.

The parties’ concerns centre on the Election Commission’s functioning and electoral-roll revision. The material does not indicate that the proposed wider meeting has yet been scheduled.