Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP (Mamata Banerjee camp) Mahua Moitra has issued a sharp message on social media amid the ongoing Opposition campaign against the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. She also attacked the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, amid the ongoing reports of an alleged rift within the Election Commission over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
In a post on X, Moitra wrote, “Beware – the revolution is coming! Everyone is going to hit the streets till we reclaim our democracy from the clutches of this Chor.”
The TMC leader’s remarks come against the backdrop of growing Opposition criticism of the Election Commission over the SIR exercise and allegations concerning the functioning of the poll panel.
Opposition Goes Full Throttle After CEC
Opposition parties on Wednesday demanded scrapping of the SIR exercise and mounted a fierce attack on CEC Gyanesh Kumar, alleging that he was running the poll panel as a “one-man autocracy” and demanding his impeachment and arrest, after objections raised by election commissioners on the Special Intensive Revision of voter lists came into the open.
The ruling BJP, however, said that election commissioners sharing differing views in official deliberations shows the Election Commission (EC) is functioning in a democratic manner and demolishes the opposition parties’ allegation that it is “dictatorial”.
Two Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, red-flagged issues relating to deletion of names under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and raised objections to the decision-making process 14 times in the past few months, according to a report in Indian Express.
However, the Election Commission clarified that differing views and observations are a normal part of deliberation in any institution and all its orders “are an outcome of the unanimous decisions of the full Commission in the past one year”.
(With agency inputs)