A 10-member Trinamul Congress delegation was dragged away from outside the Election Commission headquarters and detained by Delhi police on Monday evening after the party team launched a 24-hour sit-in with an extraordinary demand for the poll panel.

The delegation, sent by chief minister Mamata Banerjee, wanted the Election Commission to immediately remove the heads of four major central agencies: the CBI, Enforcement Directorate (ED), National Investigation Agency (NIA), and the income-tax (IT) department.

This, Trinamul argued, would reduce the chances of the Centre misusing these agencies during the election process.

After Monday evening’s drama in Delhi, Trinamul national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee — who had had a similar experience during a dharna with a delegation at Krishi Bhavan last year — demanded an appointment with Bengal governor C.V. Ananda Bose.

The governor agreed and the meeting began around 9pm. Abhishek came with
10 others.

“Today, democracy was murdered in broad daylight in Delhi, with the ghastly treatment of our delegation comprising senior leaders, many of whom are women. The principal responsibility of the murder, as its main instigator, is not the BJP or its government, or even the Union home ministry under Amit Shah.... The responsibility lies squarely on the shoulders of... the Election Commission of India,” the Diamond Harbour MP said after the meeting Bose.

In Delhi, the Trinamul delegation met senior commission officials from 4.30pm till about 5.15pm, and then began the dharna outside Nirvachan Sadan.

“If Modibabu (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) is making the mistake of thinking the central agencies are part of some fiefdom at his disposal, he is very wrong,” Rajya Sabha member Dola Sen, part of the delegation, said.

“We respect the commission. We want a level playing field in the election, which the commission must ensure. The BJP’s jomidari (feudal rule) must stop.”

Besides Sen, the delegation included Rajya Sabha members Derek O’Brien, Saket Gokhale, Md Nadimul Haque and Sagarika Ghose; former Rajya Sabha members Arpita Ghosh, Santanu Sen and Abir Ranjan Biswas; Jorasanko MLA Vivek Gupta and student wing leader Sudip Raha.

“We demand that the chiefs of four agencies — the ED, the CBI, the NIA, and the IT — be immediately changed so that the BJP cannot keep misusing the agencies as playthings to corner and inconvenience its political opponents during the elections,” Sen said.

Shortly afterwards, at 5.45pm, the police took the delegation forcibly away from the dharna site. Its members were driven around in police vehicles till about 7.15pm before being taken to Mandir Marg police station, about 2.5km from Nirvachan Sadan. They had not been released by 12.15am when this report was filed.

The delegation demanded that the commission stop BJP functionaries from meeting any official of a central agency or department during the election process.

It urged the commission to issue clearances for the Bengal government to take adequate relief and rehabilitation measures for the people affected by the March 31 mini-tornado that hit parts of north Bengal.

The poll panel’s director-general (communication), B. Narayanan, declined comment.

“Our fight will continue against the BJP’s jomidari. We will not yield,” O’Brien told journalists from Mandir Marg police station.

The Trinamul delegation had sought an appointment with the commission’s top brass after alleging on Sunday that some people in the NIA and the BJP had conspired together to unsettle Mamata’s party in Bengal this general election.

At Monday’s meeting, the delegation told the commission that West Burdwan BJP leader Jitendra Tewari (a Trinamul turncoat) had secretly met NIA superintendent of police Dhan Ram Singh at the agency official’s New Town apartment on March 26.

The delegation added that Tewari had handed over a list of Trinamul leaders and grassroots functionaries to be arrested by the agency from various parts of the state ahead of the elections.

It claimed that Singh was close to Amit Shah, and accused the Union home minister of having masterminded the Bhupatinagar incident on Saturday.

An NIA team allegedly came under attack from villagers during a visit to Bhupatinagar, East Midnapore, to arrest two local Trinamul functionaries in connection with a 2022 bomb blast.

Mamata later alleged what the NIA team had faced was spontaneous public resistance to the officials’ molestation of women.