New Delhi, April 7 A Trinamool Congress delegation will meet the Election Commission on Wednesday amid the ongoing controversies surrounding the SIR exercise in West Bengal.
Party leaders will also raise the issue of the alleged links between several middle-level officials appointed following the election panel's orders and the BJP.
Addressing a press conference here, TMC's Rajya Sabha leader Derek O'Brien said they had written to the Election Commission (EC) on Monday seeking an appointment, and the reply came around 3 pm on Tuesday.
The four-member party delegation, which includes Saket Gokhale and Menaka Guruswamy, besides O'Brien and Sagarika Ghose, will meet the EC on Wednesday morning, he said, adding they were prepared for a sit-in protest if the poll panel had not given them an appointment.
Targeting Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, O'Brien said at a press conference, "Enough of your arrogance. You listen to us tomorrow."
"We are not here to speak only about the TMC; we are here for you to listen to the voices of the people you have disenfranchised or those you are attempting to disenfranchise."
A TMC leader said they will also raise the issue of recent appointments made on the EC's directions, and alleged that several middle-level officials, such as BDOs and police observers and general observers, have "clear and visible connections with the BJP and are facing charges against them." The party leaders will also highlight some specific instances.
On the rejection of a notice to remove CEC Gyanesh Kumar by the Speaker and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, O'Brien said that opposition parties are "in touch" over the issue.
"First, they gave no reason. Now, they're giving some flimsy reason. I want to update you on this, that all the non-BJP parties, the like-minded parties, we are in touch with each other," he said.
In separate orders, the Speaker and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha refused to admit the notices moved under Article 324(5) of the Constitution, read with other relevant constitutional and statutory provisions, praying for the removal of Gyanesh Kumar as the chief election commissioner.
Radhakrishnan, in his order, said that while the allegations are relevant for political debate, they do not prima facie meet the high constitutional bar for removal proceedings.
Radhakrishnan said he finds that the allegations lack the proof necessary to constitute misbehaviour which establishes a prima facie case for the removal of the CEC.
TMC Rajya Sabha deputy leader Sagarika Ghose said the EC was trying to be a "bully", but is actually "scared".
"Around 27 lakh people are out of the adjudication list. The first phase electoral roll has been frozen. How are genuine voters going to be added?" she said and accused the EC of being partial.
"An extremely compromised EC, which is trying to take away the right to vote from a citizen in Bengal," she alleged.
Over 27.16 lakh out of 60.06 lakh 'under adjudication' voters have been deleted during the now-concluded scrutiny by judicial officers, the EC data showed.
O'Brien said, "If you're going to do this and take away 27 lakh votes. C-R-I-M-I-N-A-L. Out of 27 lakh, how many have approached the tribunal and got clearance? Why don't you have a reasonable guess? Out of 27 lakh, just two," he said.
Nearly 91 lakh voters have been deleted from the electoral rolls in West Bengal following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the state, according to data released by the Election Commission.
The poll panel is yet to officially announce the final voter base for the state after the roll revision process.
From the available figures, however, the total deletion in the state at this point, based on the 7.66 crore electors identified at the end of October last year, stands at over 11.85 per cent.
The final deletion figure, since the beginning of the SIR process, stood at a little over 90.83 lakh.
