The Trinamool general secretary and parliamentary party leader in the Lok Sabha Abhishek Banerjee claimed the chief election commissioner was not aware of the goings on in the Election Commission, the constitutional authority overseeing the election process in the country.

“The chief election commissioner is not in the scheme of things how the Special Intensive Revision is rolling out in Bengal. It is clear that someone at Nirvachan Sadan is acting on the instructions of someone higher up the ladder and with the help of software deleting names and generating hearing notices,” Abhishek said outside the Nirvachan Sadan, at the end of a nearly 150-minute meeting on Saturday afternoon.

“We asked about the hiring of outside agencies by the EC in Bengal, he (CEC Gyanesh Kumar) claimed he was unaware. He said maybe the Chief Electoral Officer’s office had hired the agency. We told him he should issue a show cause notice to the CEO. How can the CEO issue directives and notifications without your approval and consent?"

The meeting of the 10-member delegation led by Abhishek with the full bench of the commission came in the background of increasing acrimony between the central poll panel and Bengal’s ruling party.

A week ago, Abhishek had demanded the commission release the full list of the 1.36 crore voters whose enumeration forms have been found with “logical discrepancy.”

He used the same example to bolster his allegations of manipulation in the voters list.

“Clicking on the name, there are four dropdowns: sent to District Election Officer (DEO); generate hearing notices; found ok; found ineligible. When the ‘found ok’ box is clicked notices are getting generated,” Abhishek claimed. “If there was no manipulation, why would notices be generated for those who were found ok by the polling officials?”

The Lok Sabha MP also claimed that the top brass of the EC admitted to the possibility of a technical glitch.

From what Abhishek shared with the media it transpired that apart from the logical discrepancies yet to be made public, concerns were also raised over the exclusion of booth level activists from the SIR hearing centres and the increasing the number of centres also came up.

“Apart from two or three basic questions he could not answer most,” said Abhishek. “He can release the video recording of the meeting to prove whether I am making false claims. He should have the courage to come down and give a point by point rebuttal of what I have told the media instead of indulging in selective leaks.”

The exclusion of the booth level activists (party workers approved by the commission) has turned into a major confrontational point between the Trinamool and the central poll panel since the hearings started at the end of last week.

Both Abhishek and chief minister Mamata Banerjee have instructed the Trinamool rank and file to camp outside the hearing centres to ensure no genuine voter is left out from the final electoral rolls.

“We asked why the BLA will not be allowed in the hearing centres. He said they should not be there. We asked him to issue a circular. He cannot issue a circular because he knows all the political parties will take it to the court,” said Abhishek. “These instructions are being sent on WhatsApp. Will the Union government be run on WhatsApp?"

The Trinamool general secretary in public made some comments that he claimed to have told the CEC Gyanesh Kumar as well within the confines of walls.

“I told him BJP will not run the country forever. But, the Constitution will remain. I told him he should work within the ambit and the yardstick of the law. If he thinks his protectors will be there forever, he is wrong. They will get caught when they are out of power,” Abhishek said.

The Trinamool general secretary also pointed to a flaw in the strategy adopted by the national ally Congress.

At least on three occasions, the leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has “exposed” alleged vote chori in successive Assembly elections.

“The people of Maharashtra and Haryana did not want the BJP. The fight is here (Nirvachan Sadan), in the booth, not in social media, not in the media. The vote chori is happening in the electoral rolls, not the electronic voting machine. The EVMs can be checked later. But how will you come to know what software, what algorithm they have used to delete the names of 58 lakh voters from the draft electoral rolls?” asked Abhishek, urging the Opposition parties to pull up their socks and be cautious while the SIR process is on.