‘No need to wait till 2029’: Mamata Banerjee attacks CEC Gyanesh Kumar, says BJP will ‘go’ this time

New Delhi: Former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday claimed that one does not need to wait till 2029 Lok Sabha polls for the Narendra Modi government “to go”, even as she raised the pitch against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar saying people will not forgive "Vanish Kumar" for taking away their right to vote.

Her second-in-command and senior MP Abhishek Banerjee referred to demands from some communities to confer Bharat Ratna to the CEC and said if there is some bigger award than this, it should be given to Kumar for "vote chori" as he "gifted" 150 seats in West Bengal to the BJP in the Assembly elections through voter deletions.

Mamata said her party Trinamool Congress had opposed the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls while claiming that the Election Commission has "centralised" the entire election process, including EVM management, polling and counting processes while raising questions over a fire that destroyed around 4,000 EVMs in South Kolkata in June and accused the BJP of masterminding it.

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"We went to the court. We did not get justice. We went to the EC with 100 victims (of deletion from electoral rolls). We were insulted," she said at a press conference with party lawmakers here, as she called the CEC as 'Vanish Kumar'. She said, "he made people's rights vanish. How can I forgive him? Who am I? It is the people of India who will not forgive him."

Questioning a 2023 law that governs the appointment of CECs and EC and provide life-long immunity for their actions and decisions, she said, "if somebody is in charge of taking care of the election process and democracy, as per the Constitution and the obligations of democracy, then no issue. We respect that. But if somebody, because of immunity, is sitting in a chair..."

She claimed that the SIR disproportionately affected constituencies won by the Trinamool in the Assembly polls with four times more votes cut there.

"Khela shuru (The game has started). There is no need to wait till 2029. First, Gyanesh Kumar will have to go. He damaged democracy. Last time also, elections were manipulated...," she said.

Insisting that the present political scenario can change soon, she said she was not predicting a specific timeline but added, "see how long it will go on. Two months, three months, six months. I am not an astrologer. But I think, very soon, you will get the good news."

As questions were raised about who could become the Prime Ministerial face of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc, she said the Opposition is together and expressed confidence that "this time the BJP will go". She dismissed reports of trouble in united actions when DMK and AAP remained out of the bloc, saying some issues will be there in some states because of local situations.

On the situation in West Bengal after the Suvendu Adhikari -led BJP government assumed power in May, she said over 14,000 cases have been registered against party workers while she is not allowed to move out of my house without a court order and the party is not allowed to hold meetings.

"Every day, 200-300 hooligans are coming, shouting and doing hooliganism in front of my house...Kolkata had aNow, after 8 PM, no one is on the road," Banerjee said.