Ravi Shankar Prasad Rejects Mamata Banerjee’s Election Commission Critique

The confrontation follows Banerjee’s public challenge to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar regarding the state’s recent Assembly polls and the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. Banerjee alleged that Electronic Voting Machines were compromised and claimed that the security apparatus, including central forces, was weaponized to favor the BJP. She further pointed to a June fire at an Alipore government building that destroyed EVMs as evidence of a broader effort to undermine the electoral process.

Prasad countered these accusations by citing incidents of violence and disenfranchisement during West Bengal’s Gram Panchayat elections. He argued that the TMC’s governance record contradicts their current stance on fair play. This political friction intensifies as the INDIA bloc continues its demand for the removal of the Chief Election Commissioner, while the TMC maintains that its agents were systematically blocked from monitoring the ballot counting process.