TMC 2.0 is born, but will it find a place in the Sun?
It's official now, the Trinamul Congress (TMC) party has split, with the majority of 59 out of 80 MLAs opting out of the party founded and led by Mamata Banerjee.
Trinamul Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee levelled serious allegations against the Election Commission of India, accusing it of violating directives of the Supreme Court of India by using micro-observers to facilitate deletion of voters’ names from the electoral rolls on Wednesday.
Taking to his X handle, Banerjee shared screenshots of an internal WhatsApp chat purportedly involving election officials and claimed that instructions were being issued to micro-observers through informal channels instead of legally mandated, accountable procedures.
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“Is the ECI SVEEP of the view that directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court can be openly FLOUTED?” Banerjee wrote.
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“The highest court of the land has repeatedly emphasised transparency, due process, and adherence to official channels of communication. Yet we are witnessing instructions being circulated over WhatsApp rather than through formal, traceable, and accountable mechanisms,” he added.
According to Banerjee, the leaked screenshots indicate that a Special Roll Observer was issuing directions to micro-observers regarding the acceptability of birth certificates, allegedly to increase the number of deletions from the voter list.
“Even more disturbing are credible reports of Special Roll Observer, issuing instructions regarding the acceptability of birth certificates directly to Micro Observers in a WhatsApp group, to inflate deletion numbers,” he said.
Banerjee further cited Supreme Court guidelines, asserting that the role of micro-observers is strictly assistive.
“If independently examined, the tower location and IP address of the login device will not match the actual location of the concerned roll observer,” he wrote.
In a sharp political attack, Banerjee said, “The Election Commission derives its legitimacy from PUBLIC TRUST, not POLITICAL PATRONAGE,” and warned of “stringent and uncompromising legal action” against those “acting at the behest of the Zamindars of Delhi,” a remark widely seen in political circles as an indirect reference to the BJP-led Centre.
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