{"id":10138,"date":"2026-04-08T09:54:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T09:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/?p=10138"},"modified":"2026-04-08T09:54:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T09:54:40","slug":"130108431-cms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/?p=10138","title":{"rendered":"CEC’s response was ‘get lost’: TMC’s Derek O’Brien details ‘7\u2011minute’ meeting with Gyanesh Kumar | India News – The Times of India"},"content":{"rendered":"


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TMC MP Derek O’Brien (ANI photo)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

NEW DELHI: After a short and stormy meeting with the Election Commission<\/a> on Wednesday, the Trinamool Congress<\/a> (TMC) came out swinging, calling Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar \u201ca chor, a criminal\u201d and accusing him of a \u201cpartisan attitude.\u201d According to TMC leaders, the “seven-minute” meeting ended abruptly with the CEC telling their delegation to \u201cget lost.\u201dTMC leader Derek O\u2019Brien outlined the details of the encounter, saying the party\u2019s delegation included Rajya Sabha MPs Sagarika Ghose and Menaka Guruswamy, former MP Saket Gokhale, and himself.\u201cAll like-minded anti-BJP parties will be addressing a press conference at the Constitution Club today around 4:30\u20134:45 PM,\u201d O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n

Nine letters, zero response
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Rajya Sabha member O’Brien explained that the delegation presented nine letters written by TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee<\/a> to the EC, none of which had been acknowledged or answered. \u201cWe pointed out that if these letters had come from Narendra Modi or Amit Shah, the CEC would have responded immediately,\u201d he said.The TMC also presented a list of six officers in Bengal with alleged links to the BJP, along with photographic evidence. \u201cWe asked for their transfer, including the CEO seen with BJP workers in Nandigram. It took just 2\u20133 minutes to present this memorandum, and the CEC\u2019s response was simply: \u2018Get lost,\u2019\u201d O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n

A delegation silenced
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O\u2019Brien also mentioned that the CEC did not allow any of his fellow officials to speak. \u201cI have been with the TMC for 22 years and in Parliament for 16 years, and I have met many constitutional authorities, but what I witnessed today was a shame,\u201d he said. He challenged the EC to release the audio or video of the meeting to prove otherwise.<\/p>\n

Contradictory media statements
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Right after the meeting, a media update appeared claiming, \u201cElections in West Bengal will be fear-free, violence-free, inducement-free, and without any chappa, booth jamming.\u201d O\u2019Brien questioned who had sent this, insisting, \u201cThe CEC is a chor, a criminal. He said nothing of this in the meeting. The only thing he said was \u2018Get out.\u2019\u201dThe TMC delegation accused the CEC of trying to play games with the party, saying, \u201cGyanesh Kumar, you don\u2019t know who you are dealing with. This is Mamata Banerjee, Abhishek Banerjee, and the TMC.\u201dO\u2019Brien concluded by inviting all anti-BJP parties to the press conference, promising remarks in Hindi, English, and Bengali for inclusivity.<\/div>\n\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TMC MP Derek O’Brien (ANI photo) NEW DELHI: After a short and stormy meeting with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[724,25085,944,25169,723,1066,719,720,721,419,25170,722,423,1108],"class_list":["post-10138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-breaking-news","tag-derek-obrien","tag-election-commission","tag-electoral-bias","tag-google-news","tag-gyanesh-kumar","tag-india","tag-india-news","tag-india-news-today","tag-mamata-banerjee","tag-tmc-press-conference","tag-today-news","tag-trinamool-congress","tag-west-bengal-elections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}