Protesting Trinamool MPs Detained By Police Outside Poll Body Office

A 10-member delegation of Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress sitting on a dharna outside the Delhi headquarters of the Election Commission, have been detained by the police. Visuals from the spot showed the police pushing, pulling and in some cases, lifting the MPs, and loading them onto a waiting bus. The MPs have been demanding a meeting with the full-bench of the poll body with a complaint of "misuse of central agencies" by the BJP-led Central government. The chiefs of four central investigation committees should be removed by the Commission ahead of the election, they have demanded.

The delegation of MPs was being led by the party's Rajya Sabha leader Derek O'Brien. Among the protesting MPs are Dola Sen, Sagarika Ghosh, Saket Gokhale and Shantanu Sen. Demanding a "level playing field", the MPs had promised a 24-hour sit-in.

The police action started after the leaders declined repeated requests to leave. Visuals from the spot showed the 63-year-old Mr O'Brien being hauled to the bus by a couple of policemen.

The leaders are alleging that the central agencies are focussing on Opposition leaders ahead of the general election and the motive of the arrests made by the agencies is purely political.

"In a case of 2022 an arrest is made in 2024 by the NIA. Law and order is a state subject and the local police should have been informed… Strictly the chiefs of the four central agencies should be changed," said Trinamool MP Dola Sen.

"We had met the Election Commission officials on April 1. A level playing field is basic in electoral democracy,' said Sagarika Ghosh.

"The manner in which officials CBI, NIA, ED and Income Tax are acting, they appear to be branch members of BJP. It is making the life of opposition difficult. A member of BJP had a meeting with an NIA official at the latter's residence," she added.

Giving examples, she said in on the intervening night of April 5 and 6, raids were conducted without informing local police. "This time, action has been taken by the NIA in a two-year-old case… Homes of women were raided at 3 am in the morning. Officials barged into the houses at 3 am, where they harassed and molested women," she said.

The MPs, she said, have requested the poll commission to change the chiefs of NIA, ED, CBI and income tax.

The protest comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's warning that at a recent election rally in Jalpaiguri that action against corruption will pick up pace after June 4, when the results of the election are to be declared. "Should we not end corruption? Should we not send corrupt people to jail? Should we not get rid of the TMC corruption? This is a Modi's guarantee," he had said.

Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said today that her party is not scared. But the BJP, she alleged, is using the agencies for political purpose. "They say Modi ka Guarantee. What is Modi's guarantee? That he will put everyone in jail after June 4," she alleged.