‘I salute him for…’: Mamata Banerjee's 'top bosses' jibe at BJP after Arun Goel resignation as election commissioner

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday reacted to election commissioner Arun Goel's resignation just days before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and praised him for "not succumbing to BJP's attempts at coercion".

“I salute Arun Goel for not succumbing to pressure by Delhi leaders (of BJP) and his top bosses in connection with the West Bengal LS polls and the deployment of forces," Banerjee was quoted as saying by PTI.

Addressing a gathering at Kolkata's Brigade Parade Grounds She added that it is "proven" that the BJP-led NDA wants to "loot" votes.

Earlier during the day, Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav had asked whether the Election Commission was working under pressure. "Just before the elections, whose pressure there is on the Election Commission which is a constitutional body," Yadav said when asked about Goel's resignation.

Goel had resigned from his post on Saturday. His tenure was till December 5, 2027, and he would have become Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) after incumbent Rajiv Kumar retired in February next year.

According to a law ministry notification, Goel's resignation has been accepted by President Droupadi Murmu with effect from Saturday. It was not immediately known why he stepped down.

Goel, a retired bureaucrat, was a 1985-batch IAS officer of the Punjab cadre. He had joined the Election Commission in November 2022.

Following the retirement of Anup Chandra Pandey in February and Goel's resignation, the three-member EC has now only one member: CEC Rajiv Kumar.

Before Goel, Ashok Lavasa had resigned as election commissioner in August 2020. He had given dissent notes on various model code violations decisions taken by the EC in the last Lok Sabha polls.

A report by news agency PTI