TMC, BJP Spar As Derek O'Brien-Led Delegation Detained For Protest Outside EC Office In Delhi. Top Points

A 10-member delegation of the TMC sat on a dharna outside the EC office after meeting a full bench of the Election Commission.

Delhi Police personnel detain TMC leader Saket Gokhale during a dharna of a TMC delegation after a meeting with Election Commission of India (ECI), outside ECI’s office, in New Delhi. ( Image Source :PTI )

TMC Leaders Detained: The Delhi Police on Monday detained a delegation of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders while they were on a dharna outside the Election Commission’s office in the national capital, demanding that the chiefs of the CBI, NIA, ED, and Income Tax Department be changed.

The BJP called the protest a “poll gimmick” and alleged that the TMC was making an all-out effort to protect Sandeshkhali accused Shahjahan Seikh. On the other hand the TMC said that the delegation will comtinue the protest despite detention.

A 10-member delegation of the TMC sat on a dharna outside the EC office after meeting a full bench of the poll panel. Following the detention, TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee went to the Raj Bhavan on Monday night to lodge a complaint with West Bengal Governor C. V. Ananda Bose.

An 11-member delegation led by Banerjee went to the governor’s house around 9 pm, news agency PTI reported, citing sources. “The delegation will lodge its complaint against the detention of the TMC leaders by Delhi Police in the national capital,” a TMC leader said, as quoted by PTI.

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The Mamata Banerjee-led party has been alleging that the central probe agencies have been targeting opposition parties ahead of the Lok Sabha elections at the behest of the BJP-led central government.
The TMC delegation detained by the Delhi police included leaders like Derek O’Brien, TMC MPs Mohammed Nadimul Haque, Dola Sen, Saket Gokhale, and Sagarika Ghose, MLA Vivek Gupta, former MPs Arpita Ghosh, Santanu Sen, and Abir Ranjan Biswas, and the party’s students’ wing West Bengal vice president Sudip Raha.
The BJP termed the TMC leaders’ dharna outside the poll panel’s office a “poll gimmick” and alleged the Mamata Banerjee-led party was making an all-out effort to protect Shahjahan Seikh, the main accused in the Sandeshkhali case. Sheikh, a key accused in sexual assault and land grab charges in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali.
BJP national general secretary Arun Singh slammed the TMC and said that the TMC leaders do not care about the Constitution of India and democracy. “TMC leaders do not care about the Constitution of India and democracy. If anyone has insulted the Constitution, constitutional institutions, and democracy, it is TMC leaders. They are doing ‘nautanki’ (gimmick) to protect and save Shahjahan Sheikh,” BJP national general secretary Arun Singh told reporters, as quoted by PTI. The protest by TMC leaders shows their frustration with the party sensing its defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, he added.
Hours after detention, TMC leader and MP Derek O’Brien said they would continue their protest at the Mandir Marg police station. “Our 24-hour dharna will continue inside the police station or outside. We will carry on,” O’Brien told reporters from behind the gates of the Mandir Marg police station, around 2.5 km from the Election Commission’s (EC) office on Ashoka Road in Central Delhi, as reported by PTI.
O’Brien claimed that after being detained, they were driven around the city, before being brought to the police station. “They drove us around Delhi for about one and half hours… after we protested, they brought us to the Mandir Marg police station,” he said, as quoted by PTI.
On their detention, a senior police officer said the action was taken as section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure — that prohibits large gatherings — is imposed in the area around the EC office and no permission was taken for the protest, as reported by PTI.
In a letter to the apex poll body, the TMC alleged that BJP leader Jitendra Tiwari met NIA Superintendent of Police DR Singh on March 26 allegedly with a “packet”, and left the flat empty handed after around an hour long meeting. “The sequence of events are ample evidence of the unholy nexus and agreement between the BJP and the NIA to harass AITC’s workers so as to ensure that they are diverted from performing their electioneering duties,” the TMC said in its letter to the EC, as quoted by PTI.