‘We will not grant you permission’: Mamata accuses EC of bias, claims denial of public meeting permission

NEW DELHI: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee accused the Election Commission of alleged bias, claiming she was denied permission to hold a public meeting in Kolkata’s Collin Lane area while clearance for a meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was granted within six hours.Addressing a rally in the Jorasanko Assembly constituency on Tuesday, Mamata criticised the poll body over what she described as unequal treatment of political parties during the ongoing election period. She said, "I had a meeting scheduled in the Collin Lane area. If a political party had been holding a meeting there, and I hadn't been granted permission, I wouldn't have given it a second thought. But, I was explicitly told (by the Election Commission), 'We will not grant you permission.' You denied permission for my meeting, yet you prioritise the Prime Minister's meeting within six hours."Earlier on Monday, the Trinamool Congress chief also alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party had deployed selectively chosen "cherry-picked" officials at the airport to deliberately delay her travel plans. She claimed her flight was made to wait on the runway for around 30 minutes and added that a similar situation had occurred with Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s helicopter.Mamata Banerjee further alleged that her party had faced repeated hurdles in securing permissions for political meetings. She also accused a BJP leader, assigned election-related duties, of creating difficulties for people in the district."We had to struggle a lot to get permission for this meeting. They have cherry-picked officers. They deliberately stopped me so that my programmes would get delayed. They are not giving us permission to hold meetings. A person has come who thinks he is a 'big leader' of the BJP. I know the person very well. That person is given duty during the polls. They are troubling the people of this district. We will take revenge democratically," she said.This comes as campaigning ended for the first phase of the Assembly election in West Bengal on Tuesday, with political parties making a strong push across 152 seats where voters will cast their ballots on April 23.The West Bengal Assembly polls will be conducted in two phases for 294 seats, with 152 constituencies going to polls in the first phase and 142 in the second. Counting of votes is scheduled for May 4.