"You are nominated official, I am elected representative...": Abhishek Banerjee to CEC Gyanesh Kumar in meeting with poll panel

New Delhi [India], January 1 (ANI): In a sharp attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party and also the Election Commission over Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday accused the BJP of misusing institutions and said the people in Bengal are with the ruling party of the state.
The Trinamool Congress general secretary, who spoke to reporters in detail after meeting the Election Commission, claimed that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar started losing his temper as the members of the Trinamool Congress delegation spoke. Banerjee alleged that the CEC pointed fingers at him, and he retorted.
The Trinamool Congress leader challenged Gyanesh Kumar to release the footage of the meeting.
"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," he said.
"Gyanesh Kumar must be hearing what I am saying to the media right now. 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 two-three 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.
A Trinamool Congress delegation met the Election Commission on Wednesday and discussed about 10 issues, including the SIR being held in West Bengal.
He threw a challenge to the BJP for next year's assembly polls in West Bengal.
Banerjee said "the theft" is happening in the voter list, in the software, not in the EVM and made an appeal to all like-minded parties.
He claimed that opposition parties are failing to understand what "algorithms and software are being run to disenfranchise and remove 50 lakh to 1 crore voters" and said if this is not happening, the poll panel should release a list of 1.36 crore logical discrepancies."
"We have come to bid goodbye to your government Mr Gyanesh Kumar, Mr Shah. This is a challenge to you. Use the ECI, ED, CBI, paramilitary forces, judiciary, media, but the people are with us. If the Congress had been able to catch this, the BJP would have lost. Congress would have won," Banerjee said.
"I appeal to all like-minded parties, especially those in the opposition: the theft is happening in the voter list, in the software, not in the EVM. Otherwise, we will get to check the EVMs. You are failing to understand what algorithms and software are being run to disenfranchise and remove 50 lakh to 1 crore voters. And if this is not happening, then release the list of 1.36 crore logical discrepancies," he added.
The TMC MP said people of Bengal will not bow before the misuse of agencies.
"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 also alleged the poll panel had "no concrete answer to anything".
He said the poll panel had not provided answers when the Trinamool Congress delegation met it last month.
"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 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. The claims and objections period will continue till January 15, 2026 and the final electoral roll will be published on February 14, 2026. (ANI)