The Bengal panchayat poll process tended to get embroiled in yet another legal tangle, as the Calcutta High Court acting on a petition filed by the CPI(M) called for a detailed report on security measures undertaken from the State Government and the State Election Commission.
Even as the Government hurriedly asked the Prison Department to take stock of the security personnel guarding the jails with a standing instruction to make available 30 per cent of the total number of cops doing duty at the penitentiaries the poll panel told the Court that Nabanna (State secretariat) had assured it of all security measures.
The Court asked the respondents to file a detailed report on May 4. Much to the chagrin of the opposition parties the SEC on Thursday fell in line with the Mamata Banerjee administration already smeared with charges of promoting political bias and large-scale electoral violence and declared a single-phase election on May 14.
Though there is no corresponding electoral law to buttress its stance the Trinamool Congress Government had earlier asked the SEC to complete the poll process before the beginning of Ramadan. The Commission had earlier declared a three-phase poll taking place on May 1, 3 and 5 before the opposition parties moved the court seeking sanction against rampant violence during the filing of nomination.
Incidentally the TMC has already won nearly 25 percent of the seats unopposed. The CPI(M)’s petition for which a hearing was fixed on April 30, drew the Court’s attention on inadequacy of security forces barely matching the number of booths pegged at about 58,000.
The Marxists have also wondered as to what prompted the poll panel to reduce the number of phases to one in place of its earlier declaration of a three-phase poll when the High Court had itself ordered an additional day for filing nomination against the backdrop of massive pre-electoral violence that saw senior parliamentarians being attacked and more than 500 people getting injured.
Anuj Sharma the ADG, law and Order meanwhile assured the Court of adequate security measures to ensure a free and fare elections.
Meanwhile, reports of opposition candidates being forced by the Trinamool goons to withdraw their nominations started pouring in from all parts of the State. Candidates were being threatened, their houses bombed and relatives attacked at Birbhum, West Midnapore, Burdwan, Malda, Murshidabad, North and South 24 Parganas, Coochbehar, Alipuruar, Babkura, Jalpaiguri and Hooghly, sources said adding the police refused to act in any of the cases.
Several Zilla Parishad candidates from the BJP and the CPI(M) and Congress have reportedly been forced to withdraw their nominations at gunpoint. “Their family members were first abducted and then they were asked to withdraw their nomination or face the consequence,” sources said.
The cold horror even reached the level where a woman CPI(M) candidate was seen “campaigning” for her Trinamool rival in the elections as “I am impressed by the developmental work carried out by Mamata Banerjee.” When asked as to why she filed her nomination she said, “because my party wanted me to do so.”
In a related development Bengal Congress president Adhir Chowdhury on Friday met Union Home Minister rajnath Singh with a demand for a President’s Rule in Bengal.
“I demanded President's rule in Bengal. Without imposing President's rule, no one will be able to exercise their democratic right. This is the need of the hour,” Chowdhury told reporters after meeting Singh. He also asked the Centre to send a team to inspect things for itself.