Can't beat up the State Election Commissioner: Bengal minister

"I cannot beat up the State Election Commissioner," said a senior West Bengal Minister Friday, even as he described the incumbent Mira Pande as a "stooge" of the opposition parties and demanded she quit.

"She is a stooge of the CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist) and the Congress... She is biased. I have never seen such a State Election Commissioner," Transport and Sports Minister Madan Mitra told media persons here.

Mitra alleged that Pande had hatched a conspiracy to ensure the CPI-M and the Congress emerged victorious in the ongoing Panchayat (village council) polls.

"I feel whatever violence has taken place, is because of her lack of common sense... I will pray to Allah that she (Pande) should lose her job."

"She should quit, I can only pray or want. Whatever else I can do, I can't beat her up," said Mitra.

Pande has become Trinamool's target ever since the commission clashed with the state government on various issues likeright to announce theelectionschedule, and the primacy to conduct the polls, besides the security arrangements.

West Bengal Advocate General Bimal Chatterjee created controversy by likening the SEC to a "beautiful woman throwing tantrums" while Mitra had said days back: "The Commission will have to wear bangles and hide behind a veil" after the polls.

While Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has vowed to take "revenge democratically" against the SEC and even rued her inability to remove Pande as the SEC chief, party parliamentarian Suvendu Adhikari Tuesday has likened the poll panel chief to an "ant about to die".