After chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her Cabinet minister Madan Mitra’s vindictive remarks against state election commissioner Mira Pande, Trinamul Congress MP Subhendu Adhikary on Tuesday joined the league and trained guns on Ms Pande even as the video recordings of Ms Banerjee’s speech reached the poll panel on Tuesday.
Mr Adhikary intensified the attack on the poll body and alleged that it was trying to “disrupt and cancel” the Panchayat polls.
At a public meeting at Dantan in West Midnapore he said, “Ants develop wings before they die. I know what medicines to apply as we have done this earlier in Nandigram and Jangalmahal. The commission is trying to put off the polls and we will not allow it to happen as we want panchayat polls to take place in a democratic way.”
His comments were similar to the attacks by Ms Banerjee and Mr Mitra within a week. Both accused the SEC of trying to postpone the polls.
Reacting to Trinamul leaders’ views, a senior SEC official said, “The number of statements made by the political leaders against us is increasing. However, being a constitutional body we cannot react like a political party every now and then. So far, the commission has reacted the way it should have reacted and has done whatever was there to be done.”
On Monday evening, the SEC informed that it has received the video recordings of the chief minister’s speech at Joynagar in South 24 Parganas and is currently verifying it.
The official added, “If the situation crosses all the limits then the commission will take legal steps.”
Meanwhile, Left Front chairman, Biman Bose said, “I do not know how, who or what gives power to the Trinamul leaders to hurl such derogatory comments against a constitutional body at the drop of a hat.”