"BJP has fallen flat in 2012, 2021, 2024 and it will happen again in 2026 polls": TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee

New Delhi [India], December 31 (ANI): Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Election Commission over SIR in Bengal and said that the BJP was defeated in the assembly and Lok Sabha polls in the state and the same result will be repeated in 2026 assembly polls.
Talking to the media after meeting the Election Commission, Banerjee accused the BJP of misusing institutions.
"People of Bengal are made to build differently. We are not built like that; we will not bow down before you. Let the BJP put their entire mind and use all the agencies and whatever they have at their disposal. Still, the people of Bengal will win the state, lock, stock, and barrel, and defeat the BJP. They have fallen flat on their faces in 2012, 2021, 2024, and it will happen again in 2026. We will bow before the power of the people, not the people in power," he said.
Banerjee alleged that the poll panel failed to answer most of party's questions.
"They think that by raising their voice and speaking aggressively, everyone will be silenced. When we started speaking, he began losing his temper. He tried to stop some of us and pointed fingers at me. I then stated that you are a nominated official, but I am an elected representative. You are answerable to your masters, but I am answerable to the masses who elected me, for whom we have come here to ensure that no legitimate voter is deleted from the list... If he has the courage, let him release the footage. I am standing very close to the ECI office. Gyanesh Kumar must be hearing what I am saying to the media right now," he said.
"If he has the courage, he should come down, face the media, and rebut every point I am making, rather than making selective leaks after 8 pm. What is stopping him? Does he think the people of Bengal are his subservient? Apart from 2-3 questions, he has failed. Does he think the people of Bengal, and we MPs, ministers, and MLAs elected by the people, are bonded labourers or slaves?" he asked.
Bengal will face assembly polls in the first half of next year.
A Trinamool Congress delegation met the Election Commission on Wednesday and discussed about 10 issues, including the SIR being held in West Bengal.
Banerjee told the media that the meeting lasted two and a half hours. He said the poll panel had not provided answers when the Trinamool Congress delegation met it last month.
He alleged that the poll panel had indulged in "selective leak" last time after meeting the party delegation and had not given a "single precise answer" to any of the issues raised.
"We discussed eight to ten issues. The meeting started at 12 noon and lasted two and a half hours. Last time, a month ago, on November 28, a delegation of 10 people from our party came here. We asked the Election Commission five questions, but we didn't receive a single precise answer to any of them," the MP said.
"That same night, the Election Commission selectively leaked information to some journalists, claiming that they had answered every question. Immediately afterwards, I tweeted that the Trinamool Congress has digital evidence and that the Election Commission did not provide a single answer to any of our questions last time... This time, except for two or three points, we didn't get any clarity on anything. When I ask them about the SIR, they shift the topic to citizenship. There was no concrete answer to anything," he added.
A five-member TMC delegation submitted a memorandum to the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal on December 29, demanding that the list of voters under the "logical discrepancy" category be published and that the methodology and legal authority used to create this category be disclosed.
The party had termed the Election Commission as the "B-team" of the BJP.
"Under the cover of the so-called SIR exercise, the BJP's B-Team Election Commission has carried out a silent assault on democracy in Bengal, secretly deleting the names of lakhs of legitimate voters without transparency, notice, or accountability. To demand answers for this institutional misconduct, our five-member delegation once again went to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal," the party said in a post on X.
"Our position is unambiguous and non-negotiable: The entire list of voters branded under the vague and arbitrary label of 'Logical Discrepancy' must be published immediately, with clear Assembly-constituency-wise and category-wise break-ups. The criteria, methodology, and legal authority used to create this category must be placed in the public domain without delay. For senior citizens above 85 years of age and persons with disabilities, all verification, hearings, and authentication under SIR must be conducted at their homes, not through queues designed to intimidate and exclude. On these demands, our five-member delegation submitted a memorandum to the State Election Commission. Bengal will not accept a democracy run through deletions, fear, and silence," the party added.
Over 58.2 lakh names were deleted during the enumeration period of the SIR exercise in the state. The ECI had published the draft voter list for West Bengal on December 16. (ANI)