In what may come as a blemish in the face of the State’s police force the Bengal Police will be required to play only an auxiliary role while the major role will be played by the central forces in the 2021 Assembly polls, Election Commission of India sources said.
Accordingly the Central Armed Police Force and the Border Security Force have been asked to remain on the alert, EC sources quoting inside reports said.
The full bench of the ECI currently touring Bengal is also known to have asked the State police to take corrective measures --- “as earlier directed by the Commission” --- within a week to ensure peace in the State “or else the ECI knows how to deal with the issue,” sources quoting the Commission top brass said.
The full bench of the Commission that earlier met top State officials including Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Gyanwant Singh before meeting the representatives of the political parties is known to have chided the top cop for failing to take measures suggested by the poll panel earlier.
In the subsequent meeting that followed the political parties including the BJP, Left and the Congress expressed concern over the ongoing violence in the State and reportedly demanded early deployment of central forces in the State.
“Our State party president Dilip Ghosh has requested the Commission to deploy the central forces early so that they can get acquainted with the local areas and conduct route marches,” a BJP leader said.
“We want all the booths to be guarded by the central forces whereas the fringe areas can be left to the State police to be manned,” Ghosh said adding the “Commission should also take cognizance of the fact that the names of about 4-5 lakh Rohingyas have been included in the voters’ list.”
CPI(M)’s Rabin Deb too raised objections over the voters’ list saying how the names of the Left Front voters had been deleted from the electoral roll besides raising concern over the way the BJP and the TMC were trying to polarize the atmosphere by raising communal slogans.
TMC leader and Minister Partho Chatterjee however complained against a “proactive BSF” saying the central forces were terrorizing the people living along the Indo-Bangla border.
“The BSF is terrorising the people living along the borders asking them to vote for a particular political party,” Chatterjee said though senior BSF officials refuted the charges.
Chatterjee also demanded repeated mock polling before the electronic voting machines were actually deployed on the election day. “Complaints have repeatedly come earlier so we want the Commission to conduct repeated mock polling to the satisfaction of all the political parties,” he said.