West Bengal Governor attempting to run "parallel office" akin to poll body: TMC complains to ECI

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], March 22 (ANI): The All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) on Friday filed a complaint to the Election Commission of India against West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose for allegedly interfering in the ensuing General Elections and attempting to run a "parallel office" akin to the poll body.
In the complaint to the Chief Election Commissioner, the AITC said, "The addition of an extra mechanism such as 'Log Sabha' not only undermines the powers of the ECI and takes away the ECI's set-up to address grievances, but further leads to unnecessary confusion amongst the masses."
Notably, the Governor has launched the 'Log Sabha', a dedicated portal to stay connected with the people during polling for the Lower House of Parliament in the state. Through the portal, citizens could connect with the Governor and convey their concerns about polling in the state.
The Trinamool Congress stated that the "actions of the Governor are ultra vires the Constitution as they encroach upon the exclusive domain of the ECI, which is solely entrusted with the process of conducting elections, and also in teeth of the law laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court".
"The Governor cannot be seen to have such powers and functions as would assign to him a dominating position over and parallel position to the Election Commission of India," the complaint read.
The TMC demanded the poll body restrain the Governor from running a "parallel electioneering system of so-called reporting of complaints and supervising the elections" under the name and style of 'Log Sabha', from interfering with the electioneering process and powers and functions of the poll body and from taking steps as proposed by him through his tweets and his press conferences.
Condemning the West Bengal Governor, the AITC said that the initiative Log Sabha oversteps the responsibilities assigned to the Governor.
"As per the Constitution of India, only the ECI has the power and the authority to conduct activities that might affect the conduct of polls deeming Hon'ble Governor's efforts to be unconstitutional in nature," the party also said in a post on 'X'.
"We would request an immediate intervention by the Election Commission of India to prevent such misuse of a public office to intervene in the democratic nature of the elections in India," the AITC added. (ANI)