Ahead of the campaigning coming to an end for nine Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, a delegation of BJP on Wednesday met the Election Commission (EC) seeking action against criminals and history-sheeters to ensure free and fair polls in the State.
The Opposition leaders also met the poll body to register their strong protest to its decision to end the campaigning by 24 hours early in the state after violence erupted during BJP president Amit Shah’s roadshow in Kolkata on Tuesday.
However, the delegation didn’t receive any satisfactory answer from the electoral body, said Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who led the delegation.
A BJP delegation, comprising Union ministers Prakash Javadekar, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Vijay Goel, met the poll panel, a day after it invoked Article 324 of the Constitution to curtail campaigning by a day in West Bengal for the seventh and last phase of the general elections, following violence between BJP and TMC workers in Kolkata and alleged that there is a “complete constitutional breakdown of governance” in the State.
“From the reading of the (EC) order, it can be safely surmised that there is complete constitutional breakdown of governance, and law and order in the State... The denigration of the country’s highest constitutional bodies like the EC and the Prime Minister’s Office by TMC chief Mamata Banerjee is itself the biggest danger to the India’s democratic traditions and its constitution,” the BJP said in a memorandum.
Besides action against criminals, the party also demanded that the EC-appointed observers take charge of non-statutory electoral functions like permissions, deployment of forces and maintaining law and order.”Senior officers of the CAPF (Central Armed Police Forces) like CRPF or CISF of any other force may be asked to personally supervise the deployment of their forces and ensure that act strictly in accordance with the guidelines issued by the MHA,” it said in its memorandum.
For his part, Singhvi said without any quasi-judicial procedure, the EC had cut short campaigning in West Bengal. “They didn’t decide who was behind the violence (at BJP president Amit Shah’s roadshow in Kolkata). We and most of the non-NDA parties have alleged that BJP is behind the vandalisation of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar’s statue and violence at the roadshow,” Singhvi said after meeting with EC.
“If the Election Commission does this, then the result that comes out of it is that the person, who is the culprit, gets the benefit for his wrongdoing and the one, who is innocent, have to pay for this as they have to cut short their campaigning process by 24 hours. If evidence shows that BJP was behind all this then why non-NDA parties pay should for it? We have not received a satisfactory response from the Election Commission on this,” he said. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh, who was also a part of the delegation, said, “TMC and other people should decide now whether they will go to court against this or not.”
Campaigning was originally scheduled to end at 5 pm on Friday for the nine constituencies that will go to polls on May 19.
Meanwhile, the delegation also complained about Raebareli Superintendent of Police Vineet Singh to the EC. “Elections were held on May 12 in Raebareli, but what happened on May 12 and May 14 there was a trailer, according to us, and shows what wrong things will happen on May 23,” Singhvi said.
“We have informed that SP Vineet Singh should immediately be transferred from there as he is openly getting biased towards BJP candidate Dinesh Singh. Vineet Singh had helped Dinesh Singh’s brother Avdesh Singh in the District Panchayat polls,” he added. Nine of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats are going to the polls on May 19.