No question of removing SEC Sinha: Mamata Banerjee; Sinha appointed to enable free and fair elections, not bloodshed: Governor Bose
A war of words has broken out between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Governor CV Ananda Bose regarding state election commissioner Rajiva Sinha.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told the media a little while back that she strongly opposes any move to replace the newly-appointed state election commissioner (SEC) Rajiva Sinha.
She said if indeed the SEC has to be removed, it has to be done through an impeachment process. This, according to experts, is a complicated process.
The question has arisen because the governor yesterday returned the joining report of the SEC without signing it, saying that Sinha should have met him in person with the said report.
But Banerjee told the media she did not have any news regarding the governor sending back the joining report.
Talking to the media just after Banerjee’s views were aired on television, the Governor Bose said he had appointed the SEC to enable free and fair elections. But bloodshed has marked the nomination process everywhere.
He said he was determined that the panchayat elections would be a free and fair process.
Earlier, when asked about the Calcutta High Court’s order for deployment of Central armed police forces (CAPF) across Bengal for the elections, the chief minister said that Bengal Police is better than the police of all other states. But, anyway, the elections would be held as per the orders of the election commissioner.
Without naming them, she threw a dart of challenge towards the Opposition, saying, however much the Opposition may try to harass the state government through Central agencies, they will not succeed.
She ended by saying that, being a democratic election, ultimately, it is the people’s will that will win, and she was confident that they will vote overwhelmingly for the Trinamool Congress.
