Governor C. V. Ananda Bose is consciously working to undermine EC’s authority and urged it to restrain him, TMC in its complaint to CEC.
Trinamool Congress today filed a formal complaint with Chief Election Commissioner alleging that West Bengal Governor C. V. Ananda Bose was illegally interfering with ensuing general elections and attempting to run a parallel office akin to that of Election Commission of India.
In a 12-page letter, West Bengal’s ruling party said that Governor was consciously working to undermine the authority of Election Commission and urged it to use its constitutional powers to restrain the Governor.
The party also listed out the alleged transgressions of the Governor and his efforts to supervise, control and oversee the ensuing elections. The Governor has been making public statements concerning the electioneering process in the State of West Bengal which are supervisory in nature, akin to the powers of the ECI and beyond, the party said.
It alleged that Ananda Bose was “seeking to operate a system parallel to the one run by the ECI to oversee/control/supervise the ensuing elections, with scant regard to the powers, duties and responsibilities of the ECI.”
It referred to the various tweets of the Governor in which he had announced the launch of a portal in the name and style of “Log Sabha” for a “so-called direct connect with the people during Lok Sabha elections”. The Governor had said that any citizen could send communication to the Governor on the dedicated email logsabha.rajbhavankolkata@gmail.com. “Grievances and suggestions so received would be acted upon immediately,” the Governor had posted on his X handle.
The party also took umbrage at the Governor saying that the people of West Bengal deserve peace and transparency in elections. It added that the Governor was understood to be in touch with the Election Commission in Delhi. “Sandeep Rajput, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to the Governor will be nodal officer of the ‘Log Sabha’,” the party said.
“It is the ECI alone which has complete independence, control and plenary powers over the conduct of elections,” the party wrote in its memorandum.
The Trinamool Congress pointed out that the Constitution “itself clarifies and mandates an extremely limited role for a Governor vis-a-vis elections, confining it to providing additional staff/manpower to the ECI, only if and when requested by the ECI”.
“It is pertinent to mention that the ECI has already, in consonance with its functions and duties, more particularly towards maintaining law and order during the poll, set up a grievance redressal mechanism by way of an app called “cVIGIL” which functions as a fast-track complaint reception and redressal system to report MCC violations during the elections. Complementing the same is also the National Grievance Redressal System on the ECI’s Voters’ Service Portal website where electors can register complaints and share suggestions. As such, there are existing efficacious remedies for grievance redressal during the poll, when the State administration is effectively under the control of the ECI. The addition of an extra mechanism such as “Log Sabha” not only undermines the powers of the ECI and takes away the ECI’s set-up to address grievances, but further leads to unnecessary confusion amongst the masses,” the Trinamool Congress said.
The Trinamool Congress asked the poll panel to restrain Ananda Bose from running a “parallel electioneering system of so-called reporting of complaints and supervising the elections under the name and style of “Log Sabha” and prevent him from interfering with the electioneering process and powers and functions of the ECI.
It also demanded that the Governor be restrained from taking any steps as proposed by him through his tweets and his press conferences since “the Governor cannot be seen to have such powers and functions as would assign to him a dominating position over and/or parallel position to the ECI”.
