Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress on Sunday launched a fresh offensive against the State Election Commission for “trying to jeopardise the panchayat elections in order to deny the poor people of Bengal the fruits of good governance under Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.”
Asking the Commission to open a dialogue with the State Government and withdraw its writ petition from the Calcutta High Court, senior Trinamool Congress leader and MP Subroto Bakshi on Sunday said, “In order to feed their own ego, some arrogant people are out to sabotage the panchayat elections”, adding “these people do not want the fruits of good governance to reach the grassroots”.
The State Election Commission had earlier moved the High Court with a prayer to scrap certain sections of the existing Panchayat Elections Act apart from seeking a direction for the Government to fetch Central forces to conduct the elections much to the chagrin of the State Government which had been insisting on conducting the polls with the help of State armed police.
Interestingly, the State has a total strength of 38,000 armed forces to man about 59,000 booths.
Drawing parallels with earlier elections, former Union Minister and Trinamool MP Sudip Bandopadhyay wondered “why the Commission is insisting on Central forces when earlier the panchayat elections used to take place with the help of lathi-wielding home guards.”
The ruling party had earlier alleged that the SEC was hand-in-glove with the Opposition parties like the left and the Congress.
Meanwhile, sources from the Commission said that the poll body was gathering information about the recent spates of violence throughout the State which it would cite in its list of grounds to buttress its arguments for Central forces.
“The recent spate of attacks on the offices of the other political parties throughout the State, particularly after the heckling of Finance Minister Amit Mitra in Delhi, will naturally go against the Government contention that it can conduct
panchayat elections with the help of State armed forces,” said Congress leader and senior counsel Arunabha Ghosh, adding the attack on the Presidency University further burrows a hole in the Government argument.
“How can the Government claim to conduct impartial polls with its police force who remained silent spectator while the Trinamool goons ransacked the universityIJ” he asked.
The Commission has demanded 800 companies of Central forces for area domination and peaceful conduct of the rural polls. The five-year term for the sitting bodies would end in June this year.
Meanwhile, in a new development the Trinamool leadership was considering the removal of State Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad president Shankudeb Panda, party sources said, adding the Chief Minister was planning to bring in Saurav Chakrabarty in Panda’s post. Saurav is the new entry from the Congress. Before joining the Trinamool, he was the State president of Congress Chhatra Parishad. Panda is likely to lose his post in the wake of the Presidency attack.