Mamata Banerjee challenges election commissioners’ legal immunity
Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee has criticised the Election Commission’s handling of electoral-roll revision and questioned legal protections granted to the Chief Election Commissioner and other commissioners. She alleged that voter deletions disproportionately affected TMC-held areas, claims not independently established in the supplied material.
Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee has questioned the legal immunity granted to India’s top election officials and criticised the Election Commission’s handling of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. Speaking at a press conference in New Delhi on Thursday, Banerjee said people would not forgive those responsible for taking away their voting rights. She referred to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar by the nickname “Vanish Kumar”, alleging that people’s rights had been made to disappear.
Banerjee said the TMC had opposed the roll revision in West Bengal from the outset and alleged that the exercise was centralised by the Election Commission. She said the party had approached the courts and the commission but had not received justice. She also questioned provisions in the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023.
The law, as described in the source material, protects serving or former election commissioners from civil or criminal proceedings for acts, words or actions done while carrying out, or purporting to carry out, official duties. Banerjee argued that such protection should not permit an official responsible for elections and democracy to act without accountability. She also claimed that deletions during the revision had affected TMC-won constituencies and areas disproportionately, saying four times more voters were removed wherever her party had won.
She further alleged that the BJP masterminded incidents involving the burning of about 4,000 electronic voting machines in West Bengal. The supplied material does not provide an independent verification of that allegation. Banerjee also said TMC members faced restrictions and harassment in the state.
She alleged that she needed a court order to leave her home, that party meetings were not permitted and that cases had been filed against party workers. The report provides no response from the Election Commission or BJP to these claims.
This independently written report is based on information supplied by the named publisher. Vertrix News has not independently verified the source report.