West Bengal Governor Dr CV Ananda Bose's admonishment of the State Election Commissioner has earned him a retort from the state's ruling Trinamool Congress, which hit back, saying, "his expertise is required in Manipur."
The Governor and the state government have been locked in a clash over several issues surrounding the panchayat elections in West Bengal.
On Thursday, the Governor alleged that State Election Commissioner (SEC) Rajiva Sinha has failed in discharging his duties during the panchayat elections. Mr Sinha is a former bureaucrat, just like the Governor.
"You are the custodian of the lives of the people during the election. You are the repository of all powers to ensure free and fair elections. The police, magistrate, and state machinery are under you during the elections. Then why this gruesome violence? Mr SEC, you have failed in discharging your duties," the Governor said at a press conference held at the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata.
"I appointed you as the SEC, but you disappointed people... You are in knee-deep in sin and no holy water to dip in," the Governor added. "Make elections violence-proof and not bullet-proof," the Governor advised the poll panel chief.
The Trinamool Congress's Abhishek Banerjee hit back at the Governor with sarcasm. "I think the Governor as a person is extremely competent, wise, intelligent, and I should not be commenting on what he should say and what he should not say, what he should do and what he should not do. If I have to suggest to him what to say and what to do, that would be like an act of blasphemy. I would not do that."
"I would rather request the central government that it is the need of the hour that we should take cognisance of the intellect that the governor of West Bengal has and immediately send him to Manipur. Immediately send him to states like Madhya Pradesh. A man of such intellect, a man of such wisdom, a man of such understanding of democratic values and the constitution is needed more at this time in the double-engine government of Manipur, not in Bengal," Abhishek Banerjee added.
The Trinamool Congress' National General Secretary clarified that he was not acting as the spokesperson of the state election commissioner but was responding to questions asked by journalists on the governor's statements earlier in the day. Abhishek Banerjee made the comments at the Kolkata Press Club, where he was interacting with the media on the recently concluded Trinamool Nabo Jowar campaign and the Jojo Sonjog Yatra organised to galvanise the Trinamool cadre and bring in new faces ahead of the panchayat polls in the state.
The three-tier panchayat polls will be held in West Bengal on July 8 with over 2,36,464 candidates filing nominations for 63,229 gram panchayat seats, 9,730 seats of panchayat samitis and 928 zilla parishad seats. Panchayat polls are seen as a crucial indicator of the control over politics at the grassroots level and with the Lok Sabha elections less than a year away, both the Trinamool and the opposition parties in the state are seeing it as an opportunity to gauge the public mood ahead of 2024.
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