Bengal Election: TMC vs EC showdown in Bengal: Poll body accuses Derek O’Brien of ‘shouting’; party calls it a ‘lie’ | India News

“The Trinamool Congress meeting lasted only a few minutes. Trinamool MP Derek O’Brien shouted at the Election Commission asking the CEC not to speak,” EC sources said.They also claimed that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had to intervene to restore order. “CEC Gyanesh Kumar requested Derek and Brian to maintain decorum in the commission room, telling him that ‘shouting and indecent behavior is not appropriate’,” the source added.However, TMC leaders rejected the allegations outright, calling them “false” and challenged the ECI to release the minutes of the meeting.Speaking to reporters, O’Brien gave a contrasting account of the brief interaction. “Today we went to the Chief Election Commissioner. He told us to ‘lose the gate’ within 7 minutes of the meeting. The meeting started at 10:02 am and ended at 10:07 am… When we told him that you are transferring officials, and how do you want a free and fair election? And then he said, leave here… What I saw today is shameful. I challenge the Election Commissioner to release the video or audio of what happened today,” he said.Supporting him, TMC MP Saket Gokhale called the EC’s version “false”.“This is a lie. I was personally present in the meeting. Nothing like that was said. What CEC Gyanesh Kumar told us was ‘get lost’. We challenge the ECI to release a transcript of the meeting. Otherwise we will,” Gokhale said in a post on X.TMC leader Sagarika Ghosh also dismissed the EC’s claim.“False. A blatant lie. The four-member delegation was told nothing of this. The Chief Election Commissioner told us two lines… First line: Where is your authorized signatory? And the second most shameful two words: get lost,” he told X.The clash took place against the backdrop of heightened tensions between the opposition and the Election Commission ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections.Earlier this week, Om Birla and CP Radhakrishnan rejected separate notices moved by opposition parties to remove the CEC. The notices submitted in March cited allegations including “prejudicial and discriminatory conduct in office”, “deliberate obstruction of investigation into electoral fraud” and “mass disenfranchisement”.In their respective orders, both presiding officers held that the allegations did not meet the constitutional threshold required to initiate removal proceedings, noting the lack of prima facie evidence of misconduct.

Voting for the 294-member West Bengal Assembly will be held in two phases on April 23 and April 29, with counting on May 4. In the 2021 assembly elections, the TMC won a landslide victory with 213 seats, while the BJP won 77 seats. Congress and Left Front failed to win any seats.