With complaints of electoral malpractice stock-piling at its door against the Trinamool Congress, the Election Commission on Friday cracked the whip by ordering house arrest for most talked-about party strongman Anubrata Mandal.
Mandal will henceforth be put under house-arrest and under 24x7 camera surveillance till the election process is over, sources at State secretariat Nabanna said after receiving the ECI directives.
Mandal first came to light when he publicly ordered his men to bomb police vehicles and torch Opposition houses in 2013 panchayat elections. His alleged “notoriety” became a talking point during the 2014 elections. The recent Narada sting footage showed also showed a senior Minister telling an MlA how Mandal had “sealed” 450 polling CPI(M) agents at unknown places and got the entire MP elections rigged with an effect that TMC got a lead of 1.6 lakh additional votes.
Mandal had recently gone on record saying that he would “vanish” the voters and agents during the poll day. Apart from being kept under house arrest his movements will be recorded with date and time, sources said.
Apart from the stern action taken against Mandal the Commission has also directed that CRPF columns will be accompanied by magistrates apart from the regular police officer. This could blunt the tactic applied by “biased police officers” to guide the forces in wrong directions and make them sit idle, sources said.
The ECI’s decision comes close on the heels of Chief Election Commissioner Naseem Zaidi’s visit to Kolkata on Thursday. On Thursday night the EC had ordered three police officers including Birbhum SP to be transferred by Friday.
The transfers come in the wake of a barrage of complaints lodged at the EC by the Opposition parties as well as a section of Kolkata civil society who reported to the Commission as to how Chief Minister herself and her party leaders like Mandal were intimidating the voters.
While Banerjee repeatedly told in public rallies that she would take account of all that was done against her “inch by inch just let the elections go,” Mandal said he would “vanish the opposition polling agents and voters” and also treat them to “sweets” that was “reddish-black (blood) in colour.”
While a furious Chief Minister dared the Commission saying, “do what you want I will do such acts 1000 times, a lakh times,” Mandal said “Commission! What is thatIJ”
Apparently taking a cue from his party chief Trinamool leader and Bidhannagar Mayor Sabyasachi Dutta on Friday used derogatory words against the CEC Naseem Zaidi challenging him to contest against him.
“There is one Naseem Zaidi and on the other side all are (his) Quaidi (captives)” Dutta who was recently shown in a sting operation saying he was the fountain head of the builder syndicate that ruled vast parts of Kolkata and “these syndicate members do help us in many ways win elections in lieu of what they get from us throughout the year.”
Dutta on Friday said “let Zaidi contest against me, let him bring American army from Obama instead of CRPF, SSB or whatever because these forces will hardly matter here.”
Meanwhile the left Front on Friday sent a copy of the CD in which Banerjee has been shown challenging the Commission to do whatever it wants after it issued a show-cause notice to her regarding certain utterances she made during poll campaign.