West Bengal: TMC writes to CEC over alleged bias of election officials

Kolkata, April 8: The Trinamool Congress on Wednesday shot off a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Gyanesh Kumar, accusing poll officials in West Bengal, including the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Manoj Kumar Agarwal, of political bias in favour of the BJP.

In the letter to the CEC, signed jointly by four party Rajya Sabha members namely Derek O’Brien, Sagarika Ghose, Menaka Guruswami and Saket Gokhale, the CEO Manoj Kumar Agarwal has been accused of being politically biased as he was accompanied by a local BJP leader while on an official visit to Nandigram in East Midnapore district.

The BJP’s sitting legislator and also the candidate from Nandigram this time is the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari.

“It has come to light that Shri Tapan Kumar Mahapatra, presently associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party as the Aanchal Convenor of Kalicharanpur, Nandigram, has been seen accompanying and moving within the constituency alongside the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal, Shri Manoj Kumar Agarwal, in a manner that suggests proximity and influence inconsistent with the independence expected of election administration.

"The presence and apparent role of a politically-affiliated individual in close operational proximity to the electoral machinery raises serious apprehensions regarding the sanctity of the process,” read the letter.

Similarly, in the letter, Trinamool Congress had accused that another officer, Surajit Roy, who previously served as Block Development Officer of Nandigram-II Block and against whom there was photographic evidence establishing a close and publicly visible association with Suvendu Adhikari, was previously appointed as the returning officer for Nandigram Assembly Constituency for the polls.

“Such proximity between an election official and a contesting political figure strikes at the core of institutional impartiality,” read the letter to the CEC.

In the letter, the Trinamool Congress has given a list of Election Commission of India (ECI)-appointed poll officers who allegedly have close links with several BJP leaders.

“The deployment of such individuals, whether due to political association, pending allegations, or prior roles closely linked to political executives, creates a reasonable apprehension that the electoral process is not being administered with the level of neutrality mandated under the Constitution.

"These are not isolated lapses but indicative of a broader pattern that compromises both the perception and reality of impartial election management,” the letter read.

The letter concluded with a plea that the ECI should take immediate cognisance in the matter and ensure that all electoral officers and observers are beyond reproach, both in fact and in perception.

--IANS