West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee (PTI photo)
NEW DELHI: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Monday stormed out of a meeting with CEC Gyanesh Kumar over the SIR of electoral roll issue in her state, alleging EC “humiliated and insulted” the TMC delegation and that it was BJP’s “dalal”.Talking to reporters later in front of Nirvachan Sadan — where a heavy police posse had gathered — she claimed to have warned the CEC that he will end up like Jagdeep Dhankhar, seen as a reference to the former VP’s sudden resignation last year.She was accompanied by party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, MP Kalyan Banerjee, and 12 members from what they claimed were “SIR-affected families” from Bengal.They all wore black shawls. The party has submitted a memorandum listing out its concerns to EC.Reiterating her allegation that over 150 people have died due to SIR, Banerjee said she brought “100 people to Delhi of which 50 have lost a family member due to SIR and 50 have been marked dead despite being alive”.She said the delegation walked out of the meeting in protest. She said she had come to meet EC with the hope of getting justice, but that did not happen. Responses of EC to TMC’s concerns were “bluff and garbage of lies”, she alleged.“EC has to take responsibility for the deaths that have happened due to SIR,” Mamata said. On what she expected from EC going forward, she said, “We have no expectation… they (EC) are BJP’s dalal, dalal, dalal.”“I have not seen a CEC like him. He is arrogant and a liar. I told him we respect your chair, but no chair is permanent for anybody. One day you have to go. Don’t create this precedent. Why only Bengal is being targeted?” she said.She alleged the CEC said whatever he did was right. “EC is acting on directions of BJP. Dhankhar also did this,” Mamata said. On SIR in Bengal, she said, “You (EC) are not doing inclusion; you are doing deletion. After removing 58 lakh voters, you plan to remove another 1.4 crore voters. So, you have put 2 crore voters under mismatch category.”Attacking BJP, she said “this is how you won… through manipulation in Bihar, Haryana and Maharashtra”. “But TMC is strong. If we want, I can bring lakhs of people to Delhi,” she added.ALSO READ | TMC vs EC: Poll body red flags abusive language by Trinamool MLAs
