Mamata Banerjee says thanks to Opposition for help against Election Commission's

Kolkata, May 16 West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee offered her thanks to the Opposition parties for supporting her and speaking out against to Election Commission's 'biased' decision to cut short campaigning time in the state.

"Thanks and gratitude to Mayawati, Akhilesh Yadav, Congress, Chandrababu Naidu and others for communicating solidarity and backing to us and the general population of Bengal. EC's one-sided activities under the headings of the BJP are an immediate assault on vote based system. People will give a befitting reply," Mamata tweeted on Thursday morning not long after Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati charged that the West Bengal chief minister is being targeted as a feature of a conspiracy to divert attention from failures of the Modi government.

"EC curtailed campaigning in West Bengal under strain from the central government," Mamata further said and included that it is "obvious that under present Chief Election Commissioner, Lok Sabha surveys are not being held in a thoroughly free and reasonable way."

The poll body on Wednesday night reported to summon Article 324 to reduce battling time in West Bengal by 24 hours in the wake of viciousness between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Trinamool Congress (TMC) specialists in Kolkata. The election campaign in West Bengal now ends on Thursday night at 10 pm, a day before its scheduled deadline.

"The decision to stop campaigning time isn't an EC decision. It is a BJP decision," Mamata had said at a press conference soon after EC announced the decision.

"I have never seen an Election Commission this way. They can send me a showcause see for saying this yet I am prepared for 50 showcause notices because I need to uphold Bangla respect. They can't utilize Article 324 here on the grounds that there is no peace issue. It is untrustworthy, unconstitutional. EC has RSS men," she included.

Rallying behind Mamata, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav said that the EC's choice to cancel battling in West Bengal is "against all standards of majority rule reasonable play" and tweeted that he "completely supports Mamata in her battle."

Congress also came down heavily on EC and blamed it for losing its believability and freedom.

Congress' accused Randeep Surjewala said the order is a "dark spot" on India's democracy.

"The time has arrived to review the process of arrangement of Election Commission," he stated, requiring a national discussion on the issue.

The Congress, a responsible political party, has never cast unwarranted aspersions on the actions of Constitutional bodies, Surjewala said.

"But we are deeply saddened to say that Election Commission of India has completely lost its independence and abdicated its Constitutional integrity," the Congress leader added

Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu in a series of tweets slammed the EC and BJP.

BJP and TMC workers had clashed in Kolkata after Amit Shah's roadshow on Tuesday. Acts of violence and arson had been seen with the both parties blaming each other for it. A statue of Bengali writer and philosopher Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar was also vandalised during the violence