The Bengal Opposition parties on Friday declared a full-fledged war against the State election office demanding immediate withdrawal of Special Observer Sudhir Kumar Rakesh and Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Gupta for their “utter failure” to conduct the third phase of elections in State on April 30 in a free, fair and peaceful manner.
Expressing his displeasure at “the way the Election Commission is conducting itself” left Front Chairman and CPI(M) State secretary Biman Bose demanded the withdrawal of the CEO and the Special Observer saying “they are incapable” of holding the polls in an impartial manner.
Indicating that the strings were being pulled from somewhere else at the behest of the Trinamool Congress, Bose attacked Rakesh, an IAS officer of the Bihar cadre, for his “utterly lackadaisical approach” and said “he sounded like a tiger before going back to Patna and acted in a completely different manner when he came back from there.”
The Special Observer was a failure, he said. “He has failed on all counts. He should be removed. We demand his immediate withdrawal,” he told a media conference reminding unlike on earlier occasions there was no route march, no area domination by the security forces in the sensitive areas.
The Congress also joined the chorus indicating the EC officials were not acting independently.
Upping the ante against the Commission, Pradesh Congress president and junior Railway Minister Adhir Chowdhury said, “The way things shaped up in the third phase of elections, doubts have cropped up in the minds of the political parties and the electorate. Rakesh had earlier said that he would apply the appropriate medicine to ensure free and fair elections but nothing happened and even he was not visible till 2 pm and most of the complaints went unattended.”
The Commission took no action against large-scale violence, booth capturing and threats, he said adding the Central forces were not properly utilised. “His activities have raised doubts and in such circumstances we cannot repose faith in his impartiality. He should be removed for the sake of free and fair elections.”
The BJP also demanded “total impartiality and maximum deployment of central forces in the fourth and fifth rounds,” State party president Rahul Sinha who held a meeting with the Commission officials said.
All the three parties had petitioned the Election Commission of India “to look into the matter and take necessary steps.”
Meanwhile the EC tended to look right through the television footages of violence booth capturing and proxy votes rejecting on Friday the Opposition demand for a re-polling in all the nine constituencies that went to poll on April 30. While the BJP had demanded re-polling in all the seats, the left Front had asked re-polling in 826 booths out of which 100 booths are in Bolpur constituency.