TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee
NEW DELHI: After its delegation met the full bench of EC Wednesday, Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee alleged that “vote chori” is not happening through EVMs but through manipulation of electoral rolls, a tactic he said opposition parties failed to catch in states such as Haryana, Maharashtra, Delhi and Bihar, where they lost the polls. “If they had caught this, BJP would have lost in these states,” Banerjee said, adding that TMC would not allow it to happen in Bengal, which goes to the polls in a few months. The LS MP said the battle against “vote theft” cannot be won through television debates or social media campaigns and asserted that opposition parties, including Congress, must be present on the ground, particularly at polling booths, to thwart manipulation during SIR and special summary revision of electoral rolls. “EC has failed to address most of the concerns we raised. We will not accept the final voter list if it has discrepancies,” Banerjee said, alleging collusion between the EC and BJP. The 10-member delegation included MPs Derek O’Brien, Saket Gokhale, Kalyan Banerjee, Nadimul Haque, Ritabrata Banerjee and Mamata Thakur, along with West Bengal ministers. Banerjee alleged that CEC Gyanesh Kumar was “aggressive” during the two-and-a-half-hour meeting and challenged him to release CCTV footage of the interaction. He said the party would pursue legal options if EC failed to address its concerns on SIR. Referring again to Haryana, Maharashtra, Delhi and Bihar, Banerjee said people wanted to vote for opposition parties, but alleged manipulation prevented that. “Theft is happening in the voter list, in the software, not in EVM. You are failing to understand what algorithms are being used to disenfranchise voters,” Banerjee said.
