Even as poll heat rose in the run up to the Assembly by-elections for two seats of Chowrunghee in Kolkata and Basirhat South in South 24 Parganas scheduled to take place on September 13, the BJP on Monday demanded 40 companies of central forces from the Election Commission alleging the Trinamool Congress was planning to rig the Assembly by-elections as it did in the parliamentary elections early this year.
BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, party's observer for Bengal Siddharthnath Singh and State party president Rahul Sinha on Monday met Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Gupta and demanded through him adequate number of central forces so that all the polling booths could be manned by central armed personnel.
Rahul Sinha said "the Trinamool is assembling hordes of outsiders and criminals to capture booths on that day. We want all the criminals and outsiders including leaders to be ousted from Basirhat South constituency.” The party also demanded the removal of what it called ‘partisan’ District Magistrate Sanjay Bansal.