Abhishek Banerjee led a 10-member Trinamool Congress delegation in a purportedly acrimonious meeting with the full bench of the Election Commission of India (ECI) in New Delhi on Wednesday, after which the Number Two in the party challenged chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and his “masters” to defeat his aunt.

Emerging from the meeting, which lasted for over two hours, the Diamond Harbour MP said Union home minister Amit Shah sent Kumar to “destroy (the) country”.

The EC-Trinamool meeting took place when Shah was in Calcutta, chairing a session with senior Bengal BJP leaders.

Abhishek, chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and heir apparent, alleged that Kumar was aggressive during the talks and failed to address Trinamool’s concerns on the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of the voter list and asserted that the party would not accept the final electoral roll if it had discrepancies.

“We will fight it legally,” said the Diamond Harbour MP in a media interaction after the meeting, alleging that “vote chori (theft)” in elections under the current poll panel — accused of being a political stooge of the saffron regime — has been happening through the electoral rolls and not electronic voting machines. Abhishek said recent Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, and Bihar would probably have been won by parties in the national Opposition, had they aggressively raised the issue and proactively pursued to force rectification.

“Instructions are being given over WhatsApp.... Does the Union government and the ECI want to run the country via WhatsApp? What is stopping them from issuing circulars? Why can’t BLA-2 representatives be part of the (SIR) hearings? What is the commission trying to hide?” he asked.

Trinamool’s national general secretary said the party raised several concerns around the draft electoral
roll with Kumar and others on the full bench, including the summoning of 1.36 crore electors.

Abhishek once again underscored Kumar’s past as a purportedly favourite officer of Union home minister Shah — also the Union cooperation minister — from his time as the Union cooperation secretary. “Do you think it’s a coincidence that (Kumar) was made chief election commissioner (CEC)? He was sent on a mission to destroy the Constitution and this institution. This is not a coincidence. He thinks that whatever was told to him, we will just carry out silently,” he said.

“The people of Bengal are built differently. Let the BJP use whatever agencies they have at their disposal, I dare him (Kumar) and his masters,” added the MP, accompanied by Rajya Sabha members Derek O’Brien, Saket Gokhale, Ritabrata Banerjee, Nadimul Haque, and Mamatabala Thakur, Sreerampur MP Kalyan Banerjee, besides ministers Manas Bhunia, Pradip Mazumdar, and Chandrima Bhattacharya.

He said Kumar was aggressive in the meeting and was losing his temper.

“They think that by raising their voice and speaking aggressively, everyone will be silenced. When we started speaking, he began losing his temper. He tried to stop some of us and pointed fingers at me. I then stated: ‘You are a nominated official, but I am an elected representative. You are answerable to your masters, but I am answerable to the masses who elected me, for whom we have come here to ensure that no legitimate voter is deleted from the list’,” said Abhishek.

“Ask Gyanesh Kumar to release the CCTV footage. No one, except Kumar, spoke; the other two remained mum.... What was the brief? That only he will speak and Trinamool leaders will listen silently and leave? We have come to bid adieu to your government. This is a challenge to you. Use the ECI, the ED, the CBI, all paramilitary forces, the judiciary, the media... but the people are with us,” he added.

“Gyanesh Kumar must be listening to what I am saying to the media right now. If he has the courage, he should come down, face the media, and rebut every point I am making, instead of making selective leaks after 8pm at night.”

Abhishek said there was a conspiracy to malign Bengal with the saffron-manufactured “bogey of infiltration”, and dared Kumar to come out with the list of Bangladeshis and the Rohingya whose names were purportedly found among the 58 lakh names deleted in the draft roll.

“Selective targeting, allegations of infiltration... leaked to malign Bengal. We asked the CEC to come out with a list of Bangladeshis or Rohingya who have been found in Bengal,” he said.

He questioned the commission’s decision to retroactively introduce “logical discrepancies”, summoning 1.36 crore voters for a hearing on numerous grounds, including the mismatch of parental names or questionable age gap between parents and children.

“In the last SIR, there was nothing like this. I have told the CEC that you are trying to weaponise the electoral roll based on this list. Where has this list come from? Who has made this list? Run the software and show it to us... show the media,” said Abhishek, appealing to all non-NDA forces to pay attention to these matters, saying “vote chori” was real and had been happening rampantly — something leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi pitched as the foremost plank against the saffron regime.

“Vote chori is happening on the voters’ list, not through EVMs. You don’t know what algorithm or software they are using to disenfranchise people. They are trying to weaponise the electoral roll,” he said.

“Previously, voters used to elect the government. Now the (Union) government is selecting its voters,” added Abhishek.

“The whole nation should unite against this, every party should catch their vote chori.... The people are watching. If you put up a fight, the BJP won’t win.”

EC response

The commission is said to have reiterated its directions to the Trinamool delegation, given during their previous visit to the poll panel.

An EC source said: “The Bengal government should immediately release the enhanced honorarium as approved by the EC to each BLO (booth-level officer).”

“Trinamool delegation was informed that polling stations would be set up in high-rises, gated communities and slums to facilitate the voters. The party should ensure that their ground-level political representatives are not involved in threatening any staff on election duty,” the source added.

The commission warned of “strict action” against anyone, especially political functionaries, who commit criminal intimidation of poll officials, said the source.