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Trinamool Congress upset over EC letter being made public

KOLKATA: A delegation of the Trinamool Congress met Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi here on Thursday and expressed its unhappiness over a letter sent by the Election Commission to the party being made public.

It had sought an explanation from the party over drafts worth more than Rs.1 crore drawn from two banks.

Led by party MP and Union Minister of State for Urban Development Sougata Roy, the delegations members alleged that the move tarnished the party's image in the West Bengal Assembly elections.

The Commission had sought explanations from the Trinamool and the chairmen of two nationalised banks regarding drafts worth over Rs.1 crore being drawn from branches of the banks through direct cash payment rather than drawing cheques on the party's bank account.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) had complained that the transaction allegedly violated Reserve Bank of India guidelines that put a ceiling on drawing drafts through cash payment above Rs. 50,000.

“It is a conspiracy of a section of the CPI(M) leaders both in the State and in New Delhi to malign our party and party chief Mamata Banerjee. According to the Commission's guidelines, every party needs to submit their accounts within 70 days of the elections getting over and we will do it. We are not supposed to know the internal RBI guidelines and the letter, too, did not have the guidelines enclosed. We, as a party, are only concerned about the model code of conduct laid down by the Election Commission,” Mr. Roy said.

He further claimed that the nowhere in the content of the letter signed by Harbant Singh, Under-Secretary to the Commission, was it mentioned that it could be published in the media.

The delegation also complained against the Superintendents of Police of Paschim Medinipur and Howrah districts for their alleged inaction against CPI(M) leaders accused in the Netai killings and for framing Trinamool Congress activists in false cases.

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