EC bars Mamata Banerjee from campaigning for 24 hrs; TMC calls it black day for democracy

The EC is behaving like a wing of the BJP, says TMC leader

The Election Commission has barred West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from campaigning for the state assembly polls till 8 pm on Tuesday.

Banerjee called the EC’s actions against her “undemocratic and unconstitutional”. The Trinamool Congress supremo said that she would sit on a ‘dharna’ at Gandhi Murti in Kolkata on Tuesday to protest against the poll panel’s decision to bar her from campaigning.

The EC stated in its order on Monday that Banerjee, “perhaps due to selective amnesia”, omitted key parts of her controversial speeches while responding to the notices it had issued to her last week.

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The poll panel acted against Banerjee for making what it described as “highly insinuating and provocative remarks laden with serious potential of breakdown of law and order and thereby, adversely affecting the electoral process”. It concluded that she had violated not only the Model Code of Conduct currently in force due to state assembly polls in West Bengal, but also contravened Sections 123 (3) and 123 (3A) of the Representation of People’s Act 1951 as well as the Sections 186, 189 and 505 of the Indian Penal Code.

Apart from barring the Chief Minister of West Bengal from campaigning for the next 24 hours starting from 8 pm on Monday, the commission also “sternly” warned her and advised her “to desist from using such statements while making public utterances during the period when (the) Model Code of Conduct” was “in force”.

The EC had issued two back-to-back notices to Banerjee on April 7 and 8. The first notice had been issued after the poll panel had received a complaint from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had accused her of flouting the Model Code of Conduct with an appeal to the state’s minority Muslims not to let the saffron party split the votes of the community. “Keep in mind that if the BJP comes into the government then you will be in severe danger,” the EC had quoted her telling the minority voters during an election rally at Tarakeshwar in West Bengal on April 3.

The poll panel had followed it up with a second notice, accusing the Trinamool Congress supremo of flouting the Model Code of Conduct and the Indian Penal Code by berating the central paramilitary forces deployed in the state for the Assembly polls.

Banerjee had on April 9 sent to the EC her reply to the first notice, claiming that she had not sought to influence the voters to cast votes for the TMC candidate “on religious segmentary lines” and had rather spoken in favour of communal harmony.

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The EC, however, dismissed her claim in its order issued on Monday, accusing her of “selectively” choosing parts of her speech in her reply, without mentioning “anything on the context of key parts of her speech”.

She had also on April 10 sent her reply to the second notice the EC had issued to her. She had claimed that she had made no “attempt to threaten, incite and/or influence the electorate” against the central paramilitary force personnel. “My intentions have all along been to uphold the sanctity of democracy and the spirit of the Constitution of India,” she had written to the EC.

The poll panel, however, was not convinced by her reply to the second notice, too. It noted that she had “again conveniently left out key parts of her speech, perhaps due to selective amnesia”.

Banerjee had also mentioned in her reply to the EC on April 10 some allegations against the personnel of the central paramilitary forces deployed in the state to conduct polls. The EC stated that it was sending her a separate letter based on the Action Taken Report it had received from the Chief Secretary of West Bengal.

The commission stated that it had received from the Trinamool Congress supremo on April 3 a hand-written complaint dated April 1. She had made certain allegations about the conduct of the polls in her constituency at Nandigram in West Bengal. But the EC had found that the allegations had been “factually incorrect, without any empirical evidence whatsoever and devoid of substance”.

“In fact, it is a matter of deep regret that a media narrative was sought to be weaved hour after hour to misguide the biggest stakeholder, which is the voters, by a candidate, who also happens to be the Hon’ble CM of the State.” The commission noted that the “side-show” by her at a polling station in Nandigram during polling on April 1 had been “fraught with immense potential to have an adverse impact on law and order across West Bengal and may be some other states”. “There could not have been a greater misdemeanour”.