Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee launched a scathing attack on Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Wednesday, December 31, 2025, accusing him of being on a 'mission to destroy' the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the country. The allegations followed a high-tension meeting between a TMC delegation and the poll panel in Delhi.
Explosive Allegations of Voter Roll Theft
Addressing the media outside the ECI office, Banerjee raised serious concerns about 'vote chori' (vote theft) in electoral rolls. He claimed that opposition parties like the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) failed to detect similar discrepancies in states like Maharashtra, Delhi, and Haryana. 'If they had caught it, the BJP would have lost in these states,' the TMC leader asserted.
Banerjee appealed to all like-minded political parties to vigilantly scrutinize voter lists for software-manipulated irregularities. He challenged the ECI's stance by demanding the immediate release of the logical discrepancy list from the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in West Bengal. 'If it (theft) is not happening, then release the logical discrepancy list. In the earlier SIR, there was no such thing as a suspicious list,' he stated, accusing Kumar of 'weaponising' electoral rolls.
A Heated 2.5-Hour Confrontation Inside ECI
Banerjee provided a detailed account of the closed-door meeting, which lasted for two and a half hours. He alleged that CEC Gyanesh Kumar pointed fingers, interrupted TMC members, and lost his temper during the discussion. In response, Banerjee said he reminded Kumar, 'You are nominated and I am elected.'
The TMC delegation, which included MPs Derek O'Brien, Kalyan Banerjee, Mamata Thakur, Saket Gokhale, Ritabrata Banerjee, Mohammed Nadimul Haque, and state ministers Pradip Mazumdar and Manas Bhunia, had prepared a set of 10-12 questions. Banerjee claimed that the ECI avoided replying to most of their queries. To ensure transparency, he publicly challenged Kumar to release the CCTV footage of the entire meeting, alleging that the CEC was the only one speaking for most of the duration.
Call for Accountability and Public Scrutiny
Directly targeting the CEC's accountability, Banerjee threw down a gauntlet. 'I challenge him to come down and face the media. He is answerable to his masters and we are answerable to people of Bengal,' he declared. This statement underscores the deepening rift between the ruling party at the Centre and the opposition, with the neutrality of constitutional institutions like the ECI at the centre of the controversy.
The TMC's aggressive posture signals a strategy to keep the issue of electoral integrity in the public eye, especially in the politically crucial state of West Bengal. By framing the confrontation as one between a 'nominated' bureaucrat and an 'elected' representative of the people, Banerjee has sought to frame the debate in populist terms, putting significant pressure on the election commission's public image ahead of future electoral exercises.
