JOIN USIn a move that made the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal look like a sore loser, the party stayed away from an all-party meeting called by the State Election Commission (SEC) here on Saturday. The SEC went ahead with the meeting after waiting for half an hour for representatives of the ruling party.
The crucial meeting was called to find solutions to the problems plaguing the panchayat elections in the presence of all registered political parties. The polls will be conducted between July 11 and 25 in five phases. Manas Bhunia, senior Congress leader and former state Congress president, said he has not seen “such lack of political courtesy” in his 40 years in politics.
Senior Left leader and former MP Rabin Deb also criticised the Trinamool Congress. He hinted that the ruling party might have a separate game plan to jeopardise the polls, since it was apprehensive of losing due to poor governance in the last two years.
“When Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Gupta called for an all-party meet on revision of voters’ lists, the TMC did not attend. In fact, TMC leaders are reported to have spoken against the process while in Delhi. How can it be that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee says her party welcomes the Supreme Court ruling and then stays away from the meeting?” the Left leader said.
According to sources in the SEC, a few minutes after the meeting started, a messenger bearing a note from Chatterjee arrived to inform TMC to keep away.