With the General Elections next year, the Election Commission on Thursday met a delegation of left leaders and a Congress MP over varied issues relating to free and fair polls in West Bengal and extension of postal ballot facility to overseas citizens.
A delegation of the left Front, including CPI-M leaders Sitaram Yechury and Biman Basu, RSP leader and former State Minister Kshiti Goswami, Forward Bloc’s Barun Mukherjee and CPI leader Swapan Banerjee met Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) VS Sampath and submitted a memorandum detailing the “fast deteriorating” law and order situation under Trinamool Congress-led West Bengal.
The leaders alleged that 142 of its cadres were killed since Trinamool Congress took over in West Bengal in 2011, over 7,500 grievously injured were hospitalised in these attacks while 47,000 were evicted from their homes. Besides, the State ransacked 5,547 houses of their cadre and 2,470 party offices burnt down and looted.
Seeking EC’s urgent intervention to restore normalcy in affected areas across the state, the delegation expressed “grave apprehension” of similar all-out attack just before the lS polls next year.
“If the general elections are held in such circumstances, as witnessed in the recent panchayat and local bodies’ polls, then free and fair elections in 2014 is impossible,” left Front chairman Biman Basu said.
The RSP leader Goswami accused Trinamool Congress of “butchering democratic traditions” in the State while Yechury pointed towards “improper and partisan” attitude of the State Election Commission, found to be acting under fear of the State Government.
The left parties on Wednesday organised a day-long dharna in the Capital and later met President Pranab Mukherjee to protest against the ill-treatment by Trinamool Government which did not care for Opposition parties and indulged in “paid news” to suppress facts.
Meanwhile, EC was also approached by Congress MP Naveen Jindal seeking expansion of the postal ballot system. The MP urged EC to consider if Indians abroad could vote through internet or proxy or any other form of absentee. Speaking to reporters after his meeting with CEC, Jindal said that he spoke for overseas migrant workers, students studying abroad, travelling professionals and senior or unwell citizens, who equally want to assert their right to vote.
Though CEC assured of making an attempt, he indicated practical difficulties to implement the suggestion in the coming elections in 2014. About 13 overseas electors had voted in the Assembly elections of Punjab, Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh last year.