India News | TMC Slams Centre over Appointment of Gyanesh Kumar as ECI Chief, Calls Amit Shah 'new CEC'
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Slamming the Centre over the appointment of Gyanesh Kumar as the new Chief Election Commission (CEC), Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale on Tuesday called Home Minister Amit Shah "India's new CEC", adding that "the goal of reducing ECI to a wing of BJP will be successfully achieved".
New Delhi, Feb 18 (PTI) Slamming the Centre over the appointment of Gyanesh Kumar as the new Chief Election Commission (CEC), Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale on Tuesday called Home Minister Amit Shah "India's new CEC", adding that "the goal of reducing ECI to a wing of BJP will be successfully achieved".
The Union government late on Monday night appointed Kumar as the new CEC, hours after the meeting of the prime minister-led selection committee in which Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi asked the government to defer the meeting given the matter is pending in the Supreme Court.
The appointment came at a time when the Supreme Court is set to take up on "priority basis" the pleas against the appointments of the CEC and election commissioners (ECs) under the 2023 law on February 19. Gandhi also presented a dissent note to the panel which also comprises Shah.
The 2023 law has been opposed by the opposition parties, which have also over the last couple of years questioned the impartiality of the poll panel on multiple occasions.
In a post on X, Gokhale took a dig at the government and said, "Congratulations to Sh Amit Shah on becoming India's new Chief Election Commissioner. The nation is confident that under your able leadership, the goal of reducing ECI to a wing of BJP will be successfully achieved."
He, however, added that the BJP would not succeed in West Bengal despite the appointment.
"Friendly warning: be careful of Bengal 2026. You won't succeed," he said.
TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev launched an attack on the outgoing CEC Rajiv Kumar over the delimitation process in Assam.
"As Rajiv Kumar steps down - I have to say that it is under his watch that Assam witnessed the delimitation process guided less by the rule of law and more by political bias," Dev said.
She called the exercise politically motivated and communal, and said Assam would never forgive this injustice.
"In my view lines were redrawn on communal lines, politically motivated by the party in power and based on an outdated census," she said.
"Two MLA seats were reduced in two districts of Barak Valley in Assam. A region that deserved better than that. A historical injustice that I will never forgive or forget," she said.
(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)