A day after chief minister Mamata Banerjee renewed attacks against state election commission, one of her Cabinet ministers on Sunday hurled derogatory remarks at the state election commissioner Mira Pande.
Reacting to the remarks made by chief minister and her cabinet minister, state election commission on late evening hinted at taking action against it.
During an election campaign rally at Danton in West Midnapore, state transport minister Madan Mitra said, “Once the panchayat polls gets over, the commission will have to wear bangles and hide behind a veil.”
Mr Mitra’s remarks came within 24 hours of chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s criticism of the SEC for scheduling the rural polls during the holy month of Ramazan. Ms Banerjee had even asked the people to take “revenge democratically” against it.
Ms Banerjee while addressing a public meeting at Joynagar in South 24 Parganas on Saturday said: “I will take revenge democratically.” However, taking a tough stand, state election commission informed that it would ask copies of the recorded coverage from the DM’s and would take action accordingly.
“We will ask for copies of the CDs from the DMs and examine the content carefully before taking any step,” a senior election commission official said.
According to sources, there are possibilities that the renewed duel between the state government and the SEC might again get transformed into a legal battle.
The Oppositions parties in the state expressed sharp criticism on the way a constitutional body has come under the wrath of the state government.
“It only shows how the TMC leaders blindly follow its party chief. Attacking the election commission only means that TMC does not have any respect for the Constitution,” CPI(M) leader Rabin Deb said.
State Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya said,”Such comments are not surprising, rather expected from a party which has scant respect for a democratic institution like the SEC.”
Echoing Mr Bhattacharya’s sentiment, state BJP president Rahul Sinha lambasted Mr Mitra for his remarks on state election commissioner.