By Sumedha Mittal& Jisha Surya
On December 31, 2025, Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee walked out of the Election Commission of India’s New Delhi office. Visibly agitated, he told reporters that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had spent the TMC’s meeting pointing fingers and dodging questions about the Special Intensive Revision.
“I told him to stop pointing fingers at us. That we were elected representatives and he was just a nominated member,” Banerjee told reporters. But the session was far more volatile than the TMC leader let on.
There were heated exchanges.
The meeting lasted an hour and 10 minutes. At one point, a senior TMC leader said, “We don’t wish to get personal. We wish to stay on our core issue…That’s why in the high constitutional office, we are not raising questions that are being raised on social media by many about the rapid promotions of your closest family members, including your two daughters and sons-in-law.” Kumar asked the TMC delegation not to get personal.
It was not the first such encounter though. The party demanded that a transcript of their first meeting with the commission, held on November 28, be made public. That meeting, led by MP Derek O’Brien, had also turned tense.
The TMC had submitted five questions about the SIR process and a list of more than 40 people who had allegedly died by suicide or from stress linked to the massive exercise. Kumar, TMC leaders present said, spoke at length and largely uninterrupted in both meetings. One leader claimed he had a smirk on his face as the lists were handed over. “This is when a senior member of the delegation told him, ‘Mr CEC, wipe that smirk off your face. We are talking about people who died’.”
There was a third meeting on February 2, with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee leading the TMC delegation. It ended with her storming out of the CEC’s office, saying there were no answers on revisions or on the party’s allegations of bias.
This story was originally published in newslaundry.com. Read the full story here.
