(File photo)
NEW DELHI: TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday criticised the Election Commission for “failing to provide answers” after a marathon meeting with Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on issues surrounding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal. Abhishek Banerjee said the two-and-a-half hour discussion, which touched on eight to ten concerns raised by his party, yielded “no concrete answer to anything” apart from clarity on just two or three points. He added that attempts to question the Commission on the SIR were repeatedly diverted to unrelated topics such as citizenship. “We discussed eight to ten issues. The meeting started at 12:00 PM, and it lasted two and a half hours. Last time, a month ago, on November 28th, a delegation of 10 people from our party came here. We asked the Election Commission five questions, but we didn’t receive a single precise answer to any of them,” Banerjee said.He alleged selective information leaks about the previous meeting. “That same night, the Election Commission selectively leaked information to some journalists, claiming that they had answered every question. Immediately afterwards, I tweeted that the Trinamool Congress has digital evidence and that the Election Commission did not provide a single answer to any of our questions last time… This time, except for two or three points, we didn’t get any clarity on anything. When I ask them about the SIR, they shift the topic to citizenship. There was no concrete answer to anything…”The comments came after a ten-member delegation of TMC met Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in New Delhi. The delegation was led by TMC National General Secretary and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee. The meeting was held amid the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, an exercise that has led to a standoff between the TMC-led state government and the Centre.According to the party, the delegation included Rajya Sabha chief whip Md Nadimul Haque, MPs Derek O’Brien, Kalyan Banerjee, Mamata Thakur, Saket Gokhale and Ritabrata Banerjee, along with senior leaders Pradip Mazumdar, Chandrima Bhattacharya and Manas Bhunia.More than 58.2 lakh names were deleted during the SIR enumeration process. The Election Commission of India published the draft electoral roll for the state on 16 December. The claims and objections period will run until 15 January 2026, with the final voter list scheduled for release on 14 February 2026.
