Trinamool says free and fair elections are not possible with ‘biased and biased’ Election Commission

In a direct attack on the Election Commission (EC), the Trinamool Congress has said that the “partisan and partisan view” of the panel has made “free, fair and transparent elections” in West Bengal a distant reality.

On Thursday, a six-member delegation met the Election Commission in Delhi to raise the incident of clashes in Nandigram.

“It is becoming clear that free, fair and transparent elections are becoming a distant reality in the state of West Bengal. This is evident from the partisan and biased view taken by the Election Commission of India, ”said the party’s memorandum submitted to the Election Commission.

The TMC specifically marked the Election Commission’s decision not to allow the state police within 100 meters of the polling station. The Election Commission has mentioned that only central forces will be deployed close to the polling stations. The TMC said it was an “unprecedented” decision and aspired on the prestige of the police administration in the state. The Election Commission did not take such a decision for the other three states and union territories of Puducherry. The TMC also sought to remind the commission that the state police had also worked with governments led by other political parties.

The memorandum states that there should be proper coordination between the state and central forces to ensure free and fair elections.

The party also expressed disappointment with the Election Commission for not agreeing to the demand for electronic voting machine (EVM) results with voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) in every booth. EVM-VVPAT is lengthened in randomly selected samples. The Election Commission has argued that there will be a delay in matching each EVM with the VVPAT and declaring the result. To back its claim, the Election Commission cited a Supreme Court ruling before the 2019 elections that allowed only a randomly selected sample to be matched instead of the entire lot.

The party’s memorandum stated, “It may be noted that the purpose of installing VVPAT machines at considerable cost has been intentionally made redundant and ineffective.” TMC stated that only 100% matching of VVPAT and EVM could assure voters that their choice was indeed recorded.

The party asked the Election Commission to withdraw both these decisions. The memorandum was signed by Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O’Brien and Rajya Sabha MP Nadimul Haque, Lok Sabha MP Saugat Roy, Mahua Moitra, former MP Pratima Mandal and Yashwant Sinha, who had recently joined the party.