Raising slogans against the Bharatiya Janata Party, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders ended their 24-hour protest at the Mandir Marg police station on Tuesday evening, a day after they were detained while staging a dharna outside the Election Commission’s office.
Leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party, including Saurabh Bharadwaj and Dilip Pandey, met with the protesting TMC leaders who camped overnight at the police station to extend support.
The TMC leaders on Monday met with the full bench of the Election Commission (EC) and urged the poll body to change the heads of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), National Investigation Agency (NIA) and income-tax (I-T) department, alleging that they are acting at the behest of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre.
The delegation urged the commission to ensure a level-playing field in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and stop the “misuse” of central agencies against opposition parties and leaders.
Around 4.30 pm, the TMC leaders ended their protest and walked out of the police station while raising slogans accusing the BJP of turning central agencies into its “branch office”.
“We want the EC to take an impartial stand on the issue and change the heads of these agencies. We were on a 24-hour dharna... Women MPs were detained after sunset, we were not told what the charges were, and only after midnight they told us we were free to go,” Dola Sen told the media after the protest ended.
AAP leaders, meanwhile, condemned the police action.
In a post on X, AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh also extended support to the TMC.
“If you ask for justice from the Election Commission, you will get jail. We are with TMC MP Derek O’Brien and his party’s struggle,” he said in a post in Hindi.
The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC has been alleging that the central probe agencies have been targeting opposition parties ahead of the Lok Sabha polls at the behest of the BJP-led central government.
Follow us
