Bengal goes to the high voltage, single-phase panchayat elections on Saturday amid what experts call an “irresponsibly” slack security system “that amounts to playing with the lives and property of 5 crore-strong electorate and several thousand polling personnel” who had even threatened a poll boycott in absence of central forces.
With the Mamata Banerjee Government and the State Election Commission, “very cleverly manipulating,” the situation arising out of a High Court order asking deployment of central forces in all 61,000 booths of the State reports emerging late on Friday emerging showed a massive shortage of security forces.
This, at a time when already 18 people have lost their lives in the past 30 days in pre-poll violence leading Governor CV Ananda Bose ask State Election Commissioner Rajiva Sinha to take steps in stopping, “political holi played with blood.”
The fright is so palpable that an election staff at Nandigram said he had no alternative source of income otherwise he would have left the government job. “These polls are just a killing machine,” he said.
Another poll official at Raninagar said, “the Government is coercing us to do election duty but no armed central forces are given … we have been given an old police man with an equally old gun … he cannot save himself let alone us … so what will be do … we want central forces to escort us to the booths from district centres and back otherwise we will not move from here.”
So vague was the scenario just 24 hours before the elections were to start that even top brass of the State administration had no idea about deployment of CAPF. According to sources out of 825 companies of central forces sought by the SEC --- only after being reprimanded and directed by the High Court to do so some three weeks ago --- only about 658 companies had arrived with the last 5 companies being flown in as late as Friday late noon straight from Leh to Panagarh airbase.
The High Court has directed deployment of central forces to for 10 days after the polls in order to avoid post-poll clashes. The counting of votes will be held on July 11.
With the number of booths standing at 61,636 covered by 658 companies (52,640 armed men), --- implying thereby one CAPF personnel for each booth --- concerns being raised not only about the safety of the poll staff and the votes but also the central forces jawans, sources in the administration said.