Apprehending large-scale violence in the coming general elections, the Bengal unit of the BJP has urged the Election Commission to hold the elections in at least five phases.
Referring in a letter written to the Chief Election Commissioner about the massive violence during last year’s panchayat and civic elections, State BJP president Rahul Sinha has demanded a five-phase poll and deployment of Central forces immediately after the announcement of the elections. Reminding how the EC had ensured free and fair election in 2011 Assembly polls conducted in six phases, Sinha wrote “the way the ruling party threatened and attacked aspiring candidates and voters the way democratic rights were smashed in the last local elections” bore ample testimony to the prevailing law and order situation in the State.
He requested the Commission to deploy central forces from the day of filing of nominations in order “to rebuild the faith in democracy” urging it not to allow the deployment of state police forces within two hundred metres of a polling booth. Incidentally the Commission which had earlier expressed its inability to man all the booths with Central forces was relaying on a report prepared by the State Election Commission. Accordingly it was considering 73 percent of the booths as sensitive meriting paramilitary deployment.
However the Opposition parties including the BJP feel the situation in Bengal was completely different from other States as the ruling party was waging a psychological attack too on the voters in order to keep them off the booths.