NEW DELHI: Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Kalyan Banerjee on Tuesday said the party is considering bringing a motion to impeach Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over the manner in which the poll body is conducting the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal and other states, some of which will hold elections either this year or in 2027.“We will bring impeachment motion against the CEC. The way they are conducting the SIR is wrong. This would affect the voting rights of all citizens of the country. They want to ensure nobody has voting rights. Therefore, we are considering impeachment motion over this ill-motive. We are also talking to other parties,” Banerjee told reporters.The TMC is the third-largest opposition party—and the fourth-largest overall—in the Lok Sabha, with 28 members, all from West Bengal, which it governs. The party has been in power here since 2011.
Banerjee’s remarks came a day after West Bengal chief minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee met CEC Kumar and two election commissioners at the EC office in Delhi to discuss the SIR issue. She reportedly slammed the table and stormed out of the room, bringing the meeting to an end.On Tuesday, Mamata Banerjee also called for the impeachment of the CEC, whom she described as “arrogant” following Monday’s meeting.“We also want him (Gyanesh Kumar) to be impeached,” she said at a press conference in Delhi. The West Bengal CM is in the national capital as part of her intensified campaign against the ongoing SIR in her state.She held a press conference in Delhi with “victims” of the SIR process from West Bengal. The Trinamool chief claimed they “represented many others who suffered due to the exercise.”“People sitting behind us are all SIR victims. I could have brought lakhs of people here. They are not giving an opportunity to SIR victims to defend themselves,” PTI quoted her as saying.Questioning the timing of the SIR, Mamata Banerjee asked why the exercise was being conducted just ahead of assembly elections. She also questioned why it was being carried out only in poll-bound states ruled by the opposition and not in the BJP-ruled Assam, where a special revision (SR) of electoral rolls is underway.“Out of the four election-bound states, they’re doing SIR in three states and not in BJP-ruled Assam,” she said, referring to West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. The three states and Assam, along with the Union Territory of Puducherry, will go to polls around April–May.The Supreme Court is currently hearing multiple petitions against the West Bengal SIR, including those filed by TMC MPs.
