TMC accuses CEC Gyanesh Kumar of shouting at its delegation

WEst Bengal’s ruling Trinamool u.s. Congress (TMC) on mon accused chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of disrespecting women and shouting at a delegation of the company that met him and the ii election commissioners in calcutta, escalating tensions between the two sides.“Like every time, it was he [Kumar] who did all the talking. After speaking for some time, he suddenly got irritated and said that you [TMC] have moved the Supreme Court. He was shouting. He accused us of shouting,” said TMC leader and state minister Chandrima Bhattacharya.She quoted Kumar as saying that Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has been completed in other states and that he is helpless, as the Supreme Court is monitoring the process in West Bengal. “Is moving the Supreme Court a crime? We have the right to move court,” Bhattacharya said after the meeting. “He [Kumar] was asking me not to shout. I told him that his attitude proves that he does not respect women. That is why names of women voters are being deleted.”There was no immediate response from the Election Commission of India (ECI) to Bhattacharya’s version of what transpired at the meeting.Earlier on Monday morning, TMC workers carrying placards with “go back” slogans written on them and black flags gathered as Kumar visited the Kalighat Temple. TMC workers showed Kumar black flags and shouted go back slogans after Kumar landed in Kolkata on Sunday evening.In a statement on the meeting with the representatives of the political parties, the ECI on Monday said that they urged it to conduct the assembly election in one or two phases, protect voters, and deploy Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) to curb poll violence. It added that Kumar assured them that the ECI will not leave any stone unturned in ensuring an impartial, transparent, and fair poll.Kumar and election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, who are on a three-day visit to Kolkata, are holding a series of meetings to take stock of the poll preparations.Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Sishir Bajoria said they requested the ECI to conduct the elections in one phase or at most two phases. “Holding elections in multiple phases does not help.”The ECI and the TMC have been at loggerheads over the SIR. On February 24, the Supreme Court invoked its extraordinary powers under the Constitution’s Article 142 to direct the ECI to continue publishing supplementary voter lists even after the final electoral roll is notified on February 28 to ensure that no eligible voter is disenfranchised ahead of the assembly elections.The court deemed that voters included in supplementary lists would be treated as part of the final roll, effectively neutralising rigid statutory timelines that might otherwise bar inclusion of voters whose verification remained pending. It authorised the chief justice of the Calcutta high court to requisition additional judicial manpower from West Bengal and neighbouring states such as Jharkhand and Odisha to complete adjudication of claims “on a war footing”. Over 250 serving and retired district judges were engaged in deciding nearly five million claims and objections.