Mamata Banerjee demands fresh Bengal elections amid EC SIR dissent row; calls for CEC's arrest

Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday demanded the arrest of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and fresh Assembly elections in West Bengal and every other state where the BJP won polls held after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, sharpening the Opposition's attack on the poll panel over reported dissent among its members.

Reacting to a media report on internal objections within the Election Commission of India (ECI) over SIR decisions and orders, Banerjee alleged that the BJP and the poll body had "looted" the Bengal Assembly elections.

Also read: SIR row: BJP's Sambit Patra defends ECI, says 14 exchanges among commissioners show healthy democracy


"It has now been proven that BJP, EC looted Bengal assembly polls," she said.

The TMC chief said the CEC must be arrested and that all those who helped him must also face action. She further demanded that polls be held again in all states where elections were conducted in the name of SIR and the BJP won.

"We have never seen such a big scandalous story. CEC has no moral authority, must resign. BJP must stop destructing democracy," Banerjee said.

She also called for "a new public uprising".

Banerjee's remarks come four months after the BJP swept the West Bengal Assembly elections, winning 207 seats in the 294-member House in the results declared on May 4 and ending the TMC's 15-year rule in the state.

Her demands follow a media report which said that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions taken and orders issued without their knowledge.

The report prompted a sharp rebuttal from the ECI earlier on Wednesday. In a statement, the poll body said all its orders carry full legal sanction and that queries raised by members at the drafting stage are standard practice.

"Written notes, observations, technical suggestions and internal checks-and-balances are standard, ongoing practices designed to ensure complete transparency, legal compliance and operational rigour," the Commission said.

It added that highlighting specific internal notes spread over 10 months while overlooking the larger body of approvals and decisions "give only one part of the picture". All its decisions in the past year, including the SIR, were "an outcome of the unanimous decisions of the full Commission", the ECI asserted.

The Commission also cited its conduct of elections in Bihar, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Assam and West Bengal, and said its digital platforms such as ECINet operate under strict data security protocols.

Coming to the Commission's defence, BJP MP Sambit Patra said the correspondence among the three Election Commissioners on 14 occasions reflected official deliberations within the poll panel.

"Such deliberations are actually a sign of a healthy democracy," Patra told reporters, accusing the Congress of attacking constitutional institutions after failing to win elections.

The Opposition, however, has intensified its offensive. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi termed "vote chori" a crime against the Indian people and a direct attack on the Constitution. "The BJP, RSS and EC who organised it have committed an act of treason. Justice will be served," he said in a post on X.

Also read: Election Commission pushes back on dissent reports, says all SIR decisions were unanimous

AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, CPI(M) MP John Brittas and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav also targeted the Commission and the CEC.

Opposition parties have jointly called for the CEC's removal, alleging that the poll body was attempting to hijack the electoral process.