‘Showcause sent to CM, not TMC’: BJP says remove CEO

The delegation, led by Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman, included party general secretary Bhupendra Yadav, national secretary Shrikant Sharma and Om Pathak. They alleged that the chief electoral officer is “unabashedly allowing the TMC to flagrantly violate the constitutional mandate, electoral laws and commission’s orders” and demanded he be “shifted without any delay.” They also urged the EC to issue a warning to the Trinamool Congress.

The BJP leaders also pointed out that the Election Commission had passed an order of house arrest of TMC Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal. “In clear and gross violation and defiance of ECI orders and encouraged by Mamata Banerjee, Mondal continued his unconstitutional and unlawful activities of spreading terror by touring all the nine assembly constituencies in his district,” they said, demanding that polls there be countermanded.