Left: Derek O’Brien; Right: CEC Gyanesh Kumar

New Delhi: A meeting between a delegation of Trinamool Congress (TMC) and this Election Commission (EC) Wednesday turned tense, with both sides issuing sharply contradictory accounts of what happened.According to Election Commission sources, during the conversation TMC leader Derek O’Brien reportedly raised his voice and asked the Chief Election Commissioner not to speak.“The Trinamool Congress meeting lasted barely a few minutes. Election Commission sources said Trinamool MP Derek O’Brien shouted at the Election Commission and asked the CEC not to speak,” Election Commission sources said.He further claimed that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had to intervene to restore order. “CEC Gyanesh Kumar requested Derek O’Brien to maintain decorum in the commission room and told him that ‘shouting and rude behavior is not appropriate’,” sources said.However, TMC leaders rejected the allegations outright, calling them “false” and challenged the ECI to make the records of the meeting public.Speaking to reporters, O’Brien gave conflicting accounts of the brief conversation. “Today, we went to the Chief Election Commissioner. He told us to ‘get away’ within 7 minutes of the meeting. The meeting started at 10:02 am and ended at 10:07 am… When we told him you are transferring officials, and how do you want to conduct free and fair elections? And then he said, go away from here… What I saw today is a matter of shame. I challenge the Election Commissioner to release the video or audio of what happened today.”Supporting him, TMC MP Saket Gokhale termed the Election Commission’s version as a “lie”.“This is a lie. I was personally present at the meeting. Nothing like that was said. CEC Gyanesh Kumar only told us to ‘get lost’. We challenge the ECI to release the transcript of the meeting. Otherwise we will do so,” Gokhale said in a post on Twitter.TMC leader Sagarika Ghosh also rejected the claims of the Election Commission.“False. A blatant lie. None of this was told to the four-member delegation. We were told two lines by the Chief Election Commissioner…” First line: Where is your authorized signer. And the second most embarrassing two words: Get lost,” she said on X.The clash comes against the backdrop of growing tension between the opposition and the Election Commission ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections.Earlier this week, Om Birla and CP Radhakrishnan rejected separate notices given by opposition parties demanding the removal of the CEC. The notice submitted in March cited allegations such as “prejudicial and discriminatory conduct in office”, “deliberate obstruction of investigation into electoral fraud”, and “mass disenfranchisement”.In their respective orders, both presiding officers stated that the allegations did not meet the constitutional threshold required to initiate removal proceedings, noting the lack of prima facie evidence of misconduct.Voting for the 294-member West Bengal Assembly will be held in two phases on April 23 and April 29, with counting taking place on May 4. In the 2021 assembly elections, TMC won a landslide victory with 213 seats, while BJP won 77 seats. Congress and Left Front failed to win any seats.