'Never seen such arrogant commission': Mamata boycotts meeting with CEC over 'SIR irregularities'

Amid the ongoing feud between the Trinamool Congress and the Election Commission of India (ECI), West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee walked out of a high-stakes meeting in New Delhi on Monday. Leading a 15-member delegation, including victims of the controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, Banerjee had arrived to protest the "arbitrary" deletion of over 58 lakh voters from Bengal's rolls. However, the meeting ended abruptly after just over an hour, with the Chief Minister emerging to declare a total boycott. She described the commission as "arrogant" and "liars," alleging that she had never encountered such a dismissive poll body in her decades-long political career.

The tension was visible even before the meeting began at Nirvachan Sadan. Banerjee and her team, including Abhishek Banerjee and Kalyan Banerjee, arrived wearing black clothes as a mark of protest. Accompanying them were 100 people from Bengal, including 50 voters who were wrongly marked as "dead" on electoral rolls and another 50 who lost family members to "SIR-related stress." The Chief Minister accused the ECI of operating under the "instructions of the BJP," specifically questioning the role of "Seema Khanna," whom she alleged was an IT Cell member manipulating data rather than an official commission employee.

Outside the commission office, Banerjee voiced her frustration over the treatment meted out to her delegation. She pointed out that while Union Home Minister Amit Shah is given a "red carpet" welcome in Bengal, she and her people are greeted with a "black carpet" and police intimidation in the national capital. This refers to a standoff earlier in the day at Banga Bhawan, where a heavy Delhi Police deployment reportedly restricted the movement of the "SIR-affected" families brought from Bengal. "They are trying to destroy the federal structure of the country," Banerjee said, calling the SIR process a "backdoor NRC" trial.