The ECI vowed the 2026 West Bengal Assembly polls will be 'fear-free' in a direct message to the TMC. The statement comes amid a row, with the TMC accusing the ECI of colluding with the BJP to wrongly delete names from voter lists.
ECI's Assurance for Violence-Free Polls
Referring to the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday affirmed that the 2026 State Assembly elections will be free from fear and violence. In an X post, the ECI called for no booth and source jamming on the days of polling in West Bengal. "ECI's Straight-talk to Trinamool Congress. This time, the Elections in West Bengal would surely be: Fear-free, Violence-free, Intimidation-free, Inducement-free and without any Raid, Booth Jamming and Source Jamming," the poll body said. https://x.com/ECISVEEP/status/2041740335609737657
Polling for the 294-member Assembly in West Bengal will take place in two phases on April 23 and April 29, while counting of votes is scheduled for May 4. The poll body's statement came after a delegation of TMC MPs met with the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar at the Nirvachan Sadan in New Delhi. Party MPs Derek O'Brien, Menaka Guruswamy, Sagarika Ghose, and Saket Gokhale were present in the meeting.
TMC Accuses ECI of Bias and Collusion
There have been several confrontations and a tussle between the TMC and the ECI over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal. The TMC has accused the ECI of working on the behest of the Opposition party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to delete the names of the voters from the electoral rolls.
In a press conference on Tuesday, the TMC leaders alleged, "BJP knows it is staring at a crushing defeat in Bengal. In sheer desperation, it has outsourced its entire election campaign to ECI. This collusion is now out in the open. BJP leader and Aanchal Convenor of Kalicharanpur, Nandigram, Tapan Kumar Mahapatra, was caught openly accompanying the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal, Manoj Kumar Agarwal."
"Senior Election Commission officials have shed every pretence of neutrality. They are now functioning as de facto BJP operatives, openly fighting the BJP's battles under the cover of constitutional authority. But all these dirty conspiracies are doomed to fail," the party added. The party claimed that out of the 60 lakh voters placed under adjudication, 27 lakhs have been deleted. The total number of voters in West Bengal stands at 7,04,59,284 voters (7.04 crore) without adding the names under adjudication, as compared to 7,66,37,529 (7.66 crore) before the SIR exercise. This shows a change of more than 61 lakh names in the list. (ANI)
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