Calcutta: Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday demanded the resignation of the entire Narendra Modi-led Union cabinet and President Droupadi Murmu, dissolution of the 18th Lok Sabha and fresh elections, alleging vast irregularities in India’s electoral roll, accusing the saffron regime of benefiting from such a voters’ list and questioning Nirvachan Sadan’s integrity.
Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew dared NDA MPs to quit, promising en masse resignations by the INDIA bloc’s Parliamentarians thereafter.
Tearing into the crackdown on the national Opposition’s protest march on Monday against the Election Commission’s contentious special intensive revision (SIR), Abhishek said: “Even if I assume the ECI is correct, then the first step must be to initiate criminal proceedings against the then chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar, and file an FIR. Because under his vigilance and supervision, the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were conducted, over 240 BJP MPs were elected, based on the same irregular rolls.”
“The Prime Minister, the President... and all Union ministers must resign. The Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Haryana Assembly elections were also held using the same list. Even I was elected on its basis. Let the BJP start, we will all resign. Let this Lok Sabha be dissolved. Conduct the SIR nationwide. Then hold fresh elections,” added the Diamond Harbour MP at the Calcutta airport, en route to Delhi.
“You speak endlessly of honesty, democracy, and India’s bright future, so I challenge the BJP and NDA to begin. The Trinamool Congress, the Congress, the DMK, the Samajwadi Party, and other (national) Opposition parties will resign, too.”
Abhishek said the commission could not selectively say that the electoral roll was fine in some BJP-ruled states, such as Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, but not in some others, such as NDA-ruled Bihar, or non-NDA-ruled Bengal or Tamil Nadu.
“The SIR is being done in Bihar since they know they would lose the Assembly elections there this year if people can exercise their franchise,” he said.
“The rules cannot be different for different states. It has to be the same for all states,” added the Trinamool national general secretary.
Abhishek also wondered why the BJP was defending the commission for every serious allegation of irregularity being levelled against Nirvachan Sadan.
“Why should the BJP defend the ECI? The ECI is supposed to be a neutral, autonomous body.... Yet, the ECI has been reduced to acting as the Union government’s representative. The BJP has turned every independent institution into its worker,” he said.
“What happened (in Delhi on Monday) proves that if they truly had an answer, they would have met the (Opposition) MPs. Instead, they detained them, dragged women by their hair, lathi-charged protesters, and made them sit in police stations,” he added. “This Centre behaves as if it owns the country, using every institution to its advantage. Now, it even seeks to take away citizens’ voting rights. We will not allow that.”
The MP said even if a single person from Bengal was excluded from the electoral roll, one lakh people would gherao the commission. “No BJP leader will be able to save them,” he said.
“For the past four-and-a-half years, after losing the Bengal elections, the BJP’s discriminatory attitude towards the people of Bengal has been clear, from financially depriving the state to labelling its citizens ‘Bangladeshi’. If every eligible citizen here can exercise their vote, the BJP will never ascend to power. That is why they are taking these measures in advance.”