 "10 TMC MPs sit on 24-hour dharna outside Election Commission office")
A 10-member delegation from West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) is currently staging a dharna outside the headquarters of the Election Commission (EC). They are demanding to meet with the full bench of the poll body to address their complaint regarding the "misuse of central agencies" by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre.
The delegation of MPs is being led by the party's Rajya Sabha leader, Derek O'Brien. Among the protesting MPs are Dola Sen, Sagarika Ghosh, Saket Gokhale, and Shantanu Sen.
The leaders are alleging that the probe agencies are targeting Opposition leaders ahead of the general election and that the motive of the arrests made by the agencies is purely political.
"In a case of 2022, an arrest is made in 2024 by the NIA. Law and order is a state subject, and the local police should have been informed… Strictly, the chiefs of the four central agencies should be changed," said TMC MP Dola Sen.
"We had met the Election Commission officials on April 1. A level playing field is basic in electoral democracy," said Sagarika Ghosh.
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"The manner in which officials from the CBI, NIA, ED, and Income Tax are acting, they appear to be branch members of the BJP. It is making the life of the opposition difficult. A member of the BJP had a meeting with an NIA official at the latter's residence," said Ghosh.
Giving examples, she said that on the intervening night of April 5 and 6, raids were conducted without informing local police. "This time, action has been taken by the NIA in a two-year-old case… Homes of women were raided at 3 am in the morning. Officials barged into the houses at 3 am, where they harassed and molested women," she said.
She added that the MPs have requested the Election Commission to change the heads of the NIA, ED, CBI, and Income Tax departments.