With the Trinamool Congress using the same motorcycle rallies allegedly to terrorise the Opposition much the way the Marxist cadre did when they were in power in Bengal, the Opposition left and the Congress have decided to draw the attention of the Election Commission to ban bike rallies altogether.
“The way the TMCs’ bike rallies terrorised the electorate and looted votes during the panchayat elections making it a nearly one-sided affair we fear they will repeat the same tactic this time round. So we are writing to the Election Commission to ban bike rallies during the elections,” said senior CPI(M) leader Md Salim.
Incidentally the Election Commission has only made prior permission for such rallies mandatory. In such cases the permission would have to be obtained from the district police administration by giving the registration numbers of the bikes and names of their owners.
The ECI has made it clear that the DM and SP of the district would weigh up the situation before giving permission to the rallies.However in case of untoward incident triggered by such a rally the respective DM and SP would be taken to task.
“This is only the minimum that the ECI could have done but the situation is much fierce than what it appears. The way the bikers’ rallies dominated the panchayat elections last year it seemed the bikers and not the State Commission was conducting the election,” said senior Marxist leader Rabin Deb.
There are about 77,000 booths in Bengal out of which about 16,000 have been marked as sensitive depending upon past incidents of violence, number of complaints from the locals and some other factors.
State ECI added adequate measures were being taken to address the issue of bike ralliesCongress leadership reminded how State Election Commissioner Meera Pandey tried in vain to restrain these bikers’ gangs often two hundred in number terrorising the interior villages. “Even the Government ignored a Calcutta High Court order seeking to restrain such rallies while the Trinamool goons dominated the villages,” winning about 7,000 seats unopposed.
“The CPI(M) used to terrorise our people with bike rallies when theywere in power. Now the Trinamool Congress is aping them with moreferocity” Congress leader Abdul Mannan said.