NEW DELHI: Trinamool Congress leaders, who brought the battle with BJP over central agencies “harassing” opposition leaders during elections, were detained by the Delhi Police on Monday, from outside the office of the Election Commission of India here, where they were holding a dharna demanding the chiefs of the ED, CBI, IT and NIA be transferred immediately, to provide for “level playing field” for all political parties.
Alleging that BJP has been “misusing” NIA and other central agencies against opposition parties during the elections, a 10-member TMC delegation took the issue to ECI on Monday after the issue flared up following a show down between NIA officials and a mob of villagers on Saturday night when it went to arrest two main suspects in a 2022 blast case in West Bengal’s Purba Medinipur district.
This has sparked a political slugfest since, with chief minister Mamata Banerjee accusing the investigators of assaulting the villagers. Unwilling to give up on the issue of “harassing” opposition leaders during the Lok Sabha elections, Banerjee has brought the issue on the table of the ECI here in Delhi. Since officers in the state were transferred by orders of the ECI soon after elections were declared to provide for “level playing field,” the TMC leadership has also knocked at the ECI doors to demand the same treatment when BJP allegedly were using the same tactics against its rivals.
TMC MPs — Derek O’Brien, Nadimul Haque, Dola Sen, Saket Gokhale and Sagarika Ghose, MLA Vivek Gupta, former MPs Arpita Ghosh, Santanu Sen and Abir Ranjan Biswas and party’s students’ wing leader Sudip Raha – had announced the dharna after a meeting with the full bench of the EC to press for their demands.
In a letter to ECI, TMC alleged that BJP leader Jitendra Tiwari met NIA SP D R Singh on March 26 allegedly with a “packet” and left the flat empty handed after around an hour-long meeting. “The sequence of events are ample evidence of the unholy nexus and agreement between BJP and NIA to harass AITC’s workers so as to ensure they are diverted from performing their electioneering duties,” TMC letter to EC said. The party has alleged that during this meeting, the BJP leader handed over a list of TMC leaders and workers to be targeted.
“We asked the EC to intervene in the name of parliamentary democracy to preserve sanctity of elections. Stop ED, CBI, NIA, I-T Department from acting against opposition. They’re working like the 12th man of the BJP,” Ghose said during the dharna as members of her party displayed posters reading “NIA DG, ED, CBI directors change now”. The EC’s spokesperson said the Commission has no comments on the dharna.
They were detained and taken to a police station as section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure — that prohibits large gatherings — is imposed in the area and no permission was taken for the protest, a police officer said. “We were picked up forcefully by the police, some of us fell down. Dola Sen has a leg injury, she was pushed around,” Ghose said in a video released by TMC.
Alleging that BJP has been “misusing” NIA and other central agencies against opposition parties during the elections, a 10-member TMC delegation took the issue to ECI on Monday after the issue flared up following a show down between NIA officials and a mob of villagers on Saturday night when it went to arrest two main suspects in a 2022 blast case in West Bengal’s Purba Medinipur district.
This has sparked a political slugfest since, with chief minister Mamata Banerjee accusing the investigators of assaulting the villagers. Unwilling to give up on the issue of “harassing” opposition leaders during the Lok Sabha elections, Banerjee has brought the issue on the table of the ECI here in Delhi. Since officers in the state were transferred by orders of the ECI soon after elections were declared to provide for “level playing field,” the TMC leadership has also knocked at the ECI doors to demand the same treatment when BJP allegedly were using the same tactics against its rivals.
TMC MPs — Derek O’Brien, Nadimul Haque, Dola Sen, Saket Gokhale and Sagarika Ghose, MLA Vivek Gupta, former MPs Arpita Ghosh, Santanu Sen and Abir Ranjan Biswas and party’s students’ wing leader Sudip Raha – had announced the dharna after a meeting with the full bench of the EC to press for their demands.
In a letter to ECI, TMC alleged that BJP leader Jitendra Tiwari met NIA SP D R Singh on March 26 allegedly with a “packet” and left the flat empty handed after around an hour-long meeting. “The sequence of events are ample evidence of the unholy nexus and agreement between BJP and NIA to harass AITC’s workers so as to ensure they are diverted from performing their electioneering duties,” TMC letter to EC said. The party has alleged that during this meeting, the BJP leader handed over a list of TMC leaders and workers to be targeted.
“We asked the EC to intervene in the name of parliamentary democracy to preserve sanctity of elections. Stop ED, CBI, NIA, I-T Department from acting against opposition. They’re working like the 12th man of the BJP,” Ghose said during the dharna as members of her party displayed posters reading “NIA DG, ED, CBI directors change now”. The EC’s spokesperson said the Commission has no comments on the dharna.
They were detained and taken to a police station as section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure — that prohibits large gatherings — is imposed in the area and no permission was taken for the protest, a police officer said. “We were picked up forcefully by the police, some of us fell down. Dola Sen has a leg injury, she was pushed around,” Ghose said in a video released by TMC.