‘Elections in India need immediate reform’: Mamata Banerjee

Elections in India need to undergo immediate reforms, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said on Saturday while addressing the West Bengal legislative assembly on Saturday.

Banerjee’s comments came at her first speech at the legislative assembly after taking charge as the chief minister of the state for the third time on May 5.

“Since the time of TN Seshan, I have seen the ECI working to prevent rigging during polls. Now it is just the opposite. In some places, the rigging was done with the direct help of the poll panel. This is unfortunate and shameful. Elections need to be reformed immediately. I have been fighting for this since 1995. I am once again giving a call for this. Three nominated persons along with a few retired officers are giving transfer orders on paper chits. This should not happen. Else democracy can’t be saved,” Banerjee said.

Veteran TMC leader Biman Banerjee took oath as the speaker of the assembly on Saturday. BJP legislators, however, boycotted the session to protest against the poll violence in the state in which at least 16 persons were killed till Thursday.

“They aren’t ashamed that people have boycotted them. I can challenge that they (BJP) wouldn’t have won even 30 seats had ECI not directly helped them,” the chief minister said.

The Trinamool Congress in the state has been at loggerheads with the ECI with the ruling party repeatedly accusing the poll panel of working at the behest of the BJP-led government at the centre.

Poll panel officials in Kolkata refused to comment on the chief minister’s remarks in the assembly.

Earlier in March, however, Deputy Election Commissioner Sudeep Jain had written a letter to the TMC chief, asking her to refrain from making accusations against the poll panel.

“We will not attend the speaker’s election. We will also not attend the sessions of the House. We will not come to the assembly till our MLAs get full protection... We will only come when our MLAs will be able to walk alongside our workers,” Dilip Ghosh, BJP’s state president had told the media on Friday.

Turning her guns at the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government, the TMC supremo accused the centre of behaving in a step-motherly attitude while alleging that oxygen produced in the state was being diverted to other states.

“They are not being able to accept the people’s mandate and that’s why they are behaving like this. This is not shameful but has also raised a big question on our democracy,” she said.

In the recently ended the TMC won for the third consecutive time winning 213 out of the 292 seats where elections were held. The BJP, which had set a target to win more than 200 seats, could manage only 77.

“What if Maharashtra says today that we won’t allow vaccines produced in our state to go out? It cannot happen that way. The TMC should think about a larger perspective. This is a crisis period and the centre is helping each and every state to fight the pandemic,” said Jay Prakash Majumdar, BJP’s state vice president.

Ministers of the new cabinet would be sworn in on Monday, the chief minister said. The first cabinet meeting would be also held on the same day.