“I want to tell you what the CEC told us within seven minutes of the meeting: ‘Get Lost’,” TMC leader Derek O’Brien told reporters.
He addressed media after the TMC delegation met Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on the deletion of over 91 lakh voters’ names from the electoral rolls after the Special Intensive Review (SIR) exercise in West Bengal.
The party said the interaction ended abruptly without a detailed discussion of its concerns related to electoral rolls in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly Election 2026.
#WATCH | Delhi: TMC MP Derek O’Brien says, “Today, we went to the Chief Election Commissioner. He told us ‘get lost’ within 7 minutes of the meeting. The meeting started at 10:02 AM and ended at 10:07 AM… When we told him that you are transferring officials, and how you would… pic.twitter.com/PBtcsf8PMI
— ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2026
“We are the second largest opposition in the parliament and this is what Election Commission has told us. So we left the meeting and came out,” O’Brien said, as per News18.
“What I saw today is a shame. I challenge the Election Commissioner to release the video or audio of what happened today,” he added.
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The TMC representatives had also approached the Commission to raise complaints regarding alleged violations by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during the poll process. However, they claimed their submissions were neither acknowledged nor addressed by the Commission.
In a letter, they alleged that political links and conflicts of interest among some officials that could undermine fair elections. They urged the EC to take immediate steps to ensure impartiality and transparency.
Later, the Election Commission said in a statement to the TMC that the elections in the state would be “free, fair and impartial.”
“ECI’s Straight-talk to Trinamool Congress. This time, the Elections in West Bengal would surely be: Fear-free, Violence-free, Intimidation-free, Inducement-free and without any Chappa, Booth Jamming and Source Jamming,” the EC said in an ultimatum in response on X (formerly Twitter).
TMC MP congratulates EC chief for removal of notice
TMC leaders also said they had submitted six examples involving officials allegedly linked to the BJP and pointed out that nine letters sent earlier to the Commission remained unanswered.
They added that the party had previously been allowed to hold press briefings outside the ECI gate, as per News18.
O’Brien also said that one of the TMC MP also congratulated CEC Gyanesh Kumar for being the only EC chief against whom notices for removal had been brought in both Houses of the Parliament of India.
“One of our colleagues congratulated him on being the only CEC in India to have notices in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to be removed, and on that issue, today, all like-minded anti-BJP parties together are having a press conference at 4-4:30 in the evening…” the TMC MP told reporters.
