Kolkata, Feb 1 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on Sunday, filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Office of the state’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) over the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR).
This is the second petition filed on this issue.
Earlier, Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member, Mahua Moitra, and the party’s Rajya Sabha members Derek O’Brien and Dola Sen filed a petition in the matter on behalf of the ruling party in the apex court.
The hearing on this petition filed by the Trinamool Congress MPs is scheduled this week.
Now, Mamata Banerjee has herself filed a petition in the matter in the apex court.
However, it is not yet clear whether she had filed the petition as the West Bengal Chief Minister or as the Trinamool Congress President.
The hearing in the matter is also likely to be heard this week only.
In the petition, Mamata Banerjee had accused the ECI of political bias and adopting an authoritarian approach while conducting the SIR.
She had also claimed in the petition that the constitutional institution from which impartiality and the protection of democratic values were expected had now reached a level that is extremely worrying for any democratic society.
She had also sought the apex court’s intervention in the matter and also give necessary directions to the ECI in the matter.
The development became significant as the Chief Minister had already arrived in New Delhi on Sunday, and she is slated to meet the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Gyanesh Kumar, and raise her objections on the same issue on February 2.
On Saturday, Mamata Banerjee had sent a letter to the CEC where she questioned the authority of special roll observers (SROs) and micro-observers, who, according to her, have been appointed only in West Bengal to review the ongoing SIR in the state.
During her visit to the national capital, she is also slated to meet leaders of other opposition parties, aiming to create a larger political consensus against the SIR.
At the same time, the Treasury bench in the West Bengal Assembly will move a motion on the floor of the House during the forthcoming Budget session, condemning the SIR.
Political observers feel that by filing the petition in the apex court herself on this matter, the Chief Minister had opened multiple fronts against the ECI.
–IANS
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