Elections not fair, take action against EC: Trinamool's Kalyan Banerjee in Lok Sabha

 Raising the issue of alleged "faulty" voter lists in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Trinamool Congress member Kalyan Banerjee demanded action against the Election Commission and said that the poll body had "failed" to conduct fair and transparent elections over the past few years.

Speaking during the Zero Hour in the lower house, he said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had first flagged the issue of numerous instances of "duplicate" voter cards and the explanation given by the Election Commission was a clear breach of the Conduct of Election Rules itself.

The "faulty" voter lists were a matter of serious concern and amounted to a breach of Rule 20 of the Conduct of Elections Rule, the TMC member said.

"These things have come up over the last few years. Earlier, it was not there. Where is the increase in the number of voters in West Bengal from? Voters are coming from Gujarat and Haryana... This is not tolerable," Kalyan Banerjee, the Lok Sabha member from Sreerampur, said.

"The Election Commission, all the time, says they have conducted transparent and fair elections. It is clear that there were no transparent elections for the last few years. There was no fair election for the last few years, not at all," he said.

"The Election Commission has not done a proper act and appropriate proc.eedings should be brought against the Election Commission for this reason," the Trinamool Congress leader said.

The Trinamool Congress has been raising the issue of duplicate Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers, following which the Election Commission declared that it would take corrective measures within the next three months.

The Election Commission had rejected the Trinamool Congress claim that the voter lists were manipulated to allow voters from other states to exercise their franchise in West Bengal.

The poll body also made it clear that while the EPIC numbers of some voters "may be identical," other details such as demographic information, Assembly constituency and polling booth are different.