Mamata Banerjee, CPI(M) bridge decades-old divide over Election Commission concerns

Setting aside decades-long differences, former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee spoke to CPI(M) general secretary M.A. Baby on Friday, with both leaders converging on the question of the “declining credibility” of the Election Commission (EC).

The call is unprecedented and comes against the backdrop of a rivalry spanning nearly three decades. Ms. Banerjee quit the Congress to form the Trinamool Congress in 1997 because she believed the Congress’s State leadership was too soft on the ruling CPI(M)-led Left Front. In 2011, she managed to defeat the 34-year-old Left Front government. The CPI(M) remained the most strident critic of Ms. Banerjee’s 15-year reign, which ended with the 2026 Assembly elections.

Friday’s phone call came as a result of an outreach led by Mr. Baby, who, following the recent Indian Express report that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar allegedly ignored objections raised by fellow Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi regarding various decisions related to the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, wrote to leaders of multiple political parties exhorting them to respond to the “extraordinary situation”.

Mr. Baby wrote the letter, dated September 23, 2026, to parties working both within and outside the Opposition INDIA bloc. Beyond the INDIA bloc, he reached out to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD). He also sent the same appeal to the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), which is not registered as a political party.

In his letter, Mr. Baby wrote that to protect “constitutional values” and “citizens’ right to vote”, it is essential that all political outfits meet and deliberate with the “urgency that the situation warrants”.

“The people of our country are looking at us with the hope that all of us will stand in defence of democracy, secularism and the right to vote,” he said, asking the parties to find a mutually convenient date and place for the meeting.

Ms. Banerjee, according to sources, was one of the first leaders to respond to Mr. Baby’s plea. Agreeing with him, she wrote, “This is truly an extraordinary situation in which the credibility of the ECI and our democracy is at stake.” The two leaders spoke over the phone on Friday in a call that sources described as “warm”. According to sources, Ms. Banerjee also informed Mr. Baby that she had reached out to Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi to call a meeting of the INDIA bloc at the earliest.

Even though the two parties remained part of the INDIA bloc, they have kept each other at arm’s length. This call signals the first direct contact between the two sides in several decades.