India News | Recent Elections Not Fair, Transparent: Trinamool's Kalyan Banerjee in Lok Sabha
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Raising the issue of alleged "faulty" voter lists in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Trinamool Congress member Kalyan Banerjee said the Election Commission had "failed" to conduct fair and transparent elections over the past few years.
New Delhi, Mar 10 (PTI) Raising the issue of alleged "faulty" voter lists in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Trinamool Congress member Kalyan Banerjee said the Election Commission had "failed" to conduct fair and transparent elections over the past few years.
Speaking during the Zero Hour in the lower house, he said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had first flagged the issue of numerous instances of "duplicate" voter cards and the explanation given by the Election Commission was a clear breach of the Conduct of Election Rules itself.
The "faulty" voter lists were a matter of serious concern and amounted to a breach of Rule 20 of the Conduct of Elections Rule, the TMC member said.
"These things have come up over the last few years. Earlier, it was not there. Where is the increase in the number of voters in West Bengal from? Voters are coming from Gujarat and Haryana... This is not tolerable," Kalyan Banerjee, the Lok Sabha member from Sreerampur, said.
"The Election Commission, all the time, says they are conducting elections in a transparent and fair manner. It is clear that there have been no transparent elections in the last few years. There had been no fair elections in the last few years, not at all," he said.
"The Election Commission has not acted properly and appropriate proceedings should be brought against for that reason," the Trinamool Congress leader said.
The Trinamool Congress has been raising the issue of duplicate Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers, following which the Election Commission declared that it would take corrective measures within the next three months.
The Election Commission had rejected the Trinamool Congress claim that the voter lists were manipulated to allow voters from other states to exercise their franchise in West Bengal.
The poll body also made it clear that while the EPIC numbers of some voters "may be identical," other details such as demographic information, Assembly constituency and polling booth are different.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)