Kejriwal Backs TMC in Sharp Rebuff to ECI’s ‘Straight Talk’’, Alleges Poll Body Operating Under BJP Control

In a significant show of opposition solidarity, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday publicly backed the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, slamming the Election Commission of India (ECI) for its tone and language in a fresh X post that has triggered widespread condemnation. The row erupted hours after a tense meeting between a TMC delegation led by MP Derek O’Brien and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, amid ongoing disputes over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal.

The controversy traces its roots to the ECI’s SIR exercise in West Bengal ahead of the state Assembly polls. TMC leaders have repeatedly accused the poll panel of procedural irregularities, selective targeting of voters, and issuing informal instructions to booth-level officers via WhatsApp, claiming the process has led to deletions from voter lists and even alleged deaths linked to voter anxiety. The party has described the SIR - first piloted in Bihar but now intensely focused on Bengal - as a politically motivated exercise aimed as “special intensive rigging”

Tensions escalated on Wednesday when a four-member TMC delegation, including Derek O’Brien, met the CEC around 10 am to press their demands on the SIR and official transfers. According to O’Brien, the meeting lasted barely seven minutes before the CEC allegedly told them to “get lost.” In a strongly worded X post, the TMC leader wrote: “We challenge them to release the transcript of what was said by them & us at the 7 minute meeting. They are lying through their teeth. None of this was told to us at meeting. They leaked this non-existent conversation through ‘sources’. CEC told the four of us to: ‘GET LOST’.” TMC sources described the interaction as abrupt and disrespectful, with the party later demanding the release of audio or video recordings to set the record straight.

ECI officials pushed back, stating that the CEC had merely asked O’Brien to “maintain decorum” in the Commission’s premises, citing shouting and “inappropriate behaviour” as unacceptable. The poll body maintained it had addressed the TMC’s concerns appropriately.

Later in the day, the ECI’s official handle @ECISVEEP posted what it explicitly called a “straight talk” to the TMC. The post, issued in Hindi and English, read:

“चुनाव आयोग की तृणमूल कांग्रेस को दो टूक  
पश्चिम बंगाल में इस बार चुनाव:  
भय रहित, हिंसा रहित, धमकी रहित, प्रलोभन रहित, छापा रहित, बूथ एवं सोर्स जामिंग रहित होकर ही रहेंगे  

ECI’s Straight-talk to Trinamool Congress  

This time, the Elections in West Bengal would surely be: Fear-free, Violence-free, Intimidation-free, Inducement-free and without any Chappa, Booth Jamming and Source Jamming.”

The unusually direct and pointed language - listing specific “evils” long allegedly associated with TMC strongholds - immediately drew fire from opposition circles, who saw it as partisan and unbecoming of an independent constitutional body. TMC leaders termed the post a “handout of the BJP,” accusing the ECI of acting at the behest of the ruling party in Delhi. In a sharp counter-post, TMC supporters and leaders issued their own “straight talk” to the Commission, demanding elections “free from Delhi’s control, free from political bias, free from selective targeting, and free from double standards.”

Enter Arvind Kejriwal. The former Delhi Chief Minister quoted the ECI’s post in full on his X handle (@ArvindKejriwal) and delivered a blistering rebuke that has now amplified the backlash. His post, which quickly garnered massive engagement, read:

“अब ये कहने की भी ज़रूरत नहीं कि चुनाव आयोग सीधे बीजेपी से निर्देश लेकर और बीजेपी के अंडर में काम कर रहा है। ये अब जग ज़ाहिर है और बेहद दुर्भाग्यपूर्ण है। कम से कम ऐसी भाषा के ट्वीट करके इतने अहम संस्थान की इज़्ज़त तो सरेआम मत उछालिये।”

(Translation: “Now there is no need even to say that the Election Commission is taking direct instructions from the BJP and working under the BJP. This is now out in the open and extremely unfortunate. At least, by tweeting in such language, do not publicly drag the reputation of such an important institution through the mud.”)

Kejriwal’s intervention marks another major cross-party endorsement for the TMC on this flashpoint after Samajwadi Party and Shiv Sena (UBT), framing the ECI’s conduct as part of a larger pattern of institutional capture. AAP sources said Kejriwal’s statement was aimed at defending democratic norms rather than electoral arithmetic, though it also underscores the growing alignment among opposition parties against what they call “BJP interference” in constitutional bodies. AAP after having lost Delhi to BJP, will face the poll battle again in Punjab. Kejriwal too has maintained that Delhi assembly elections in 2025 were rigged through voter list manipulations. 

With Mamata Banerjee’s TMC already on the warpath over the SIR and official reshuffles, Kejriwal’s vocal support signals that the battle for Bengal could see a broader opposition front forming against both the Commission’s processes and its public messaging style.