Taking a serious note of the cycle of pre-poll violence unleashed in West Bengal, the Election Commission (EC) on Friday announced a six-phase Assembly poll schedule for the State between April 4 and May 5, leaving Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee complaining of step-motherly treatment.
Of the remaining three States and one Union Territory (UT) facing polls, Assam will have a two-phase election on April 4 and 11, followed by single-phase election in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and the UT of Puducherry on May 16. Results will be declared on May 19.
With the election process spread over 43 days, the first State where polling will end will be Assam which has a 126-member Assembly.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said as per the EC’s request around 75,000 to 80,000 paramilitary personnel will be deployed to provide security during the forthcoming Assembly elections.
“Peak request is around 750 to 800 companies. We will meet the demand,” Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi told reporters. One company of a paramilitary force comprises around 100 personnel. Mehrishi said at any given time, the number of paramilitary personnel on poll duty will not be higher than the figure given.
To questions on State-wise dispatch of forces, the Home Minister said these details will be worked out according to the EC’s directions. Apart from the central paramilitary personnel, police forces of all States will be deployed in the respective States to ensure free and fair polls. The EC has already said that central paramilitary forces will be deployed in all polling stations well in advance and they will be used for area domination and confidence-building measures.
The EC-appointed observers will be looking into the booth-wise and area-wise deployment of the Central forces.
The first phase of West Bengal polls for 294 seats will be held on two days keeping in view the sensitivity of the seats falling in the left Wing Extremism (lWE)-affected areas. In all, there are 49 such constituencies of which 18 seats will vote on April 4 and the remaining 31 on April 11.
This will be followed by the second phase polls on April 17 (56 constituencies), third phase on April 21 (62 constituencies), fourth phase on April 25 (49 constituencies), fifth phase on April 30 (53 constituencies) and sixth and final phase on May 5 (25 constituencies). In 2011 too, West Bengal had witnessed a six-phase polls.
Announcing the schedule, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Nasim Zaidi said that the schedule has been prepared keeping in mind the climatic conditions, examination schedule, festivals, law and order arrangement, sensitive lWE-affected areas (restricted to West Bengal), availability of Central paramilitary forces and their movement, timely deployment of forces at each
polling station and other ground realities.
Bengal’s last phase includes areas of Cooch Behar where 16,000 Indians will vote for the first time. “After the exchange between India and Bangladesh, India got 50 enclaves from Bangladesh, people of which will be eligible for voting in India. There are about 16,000 people. Everybody is keen that these citizens participate in this election,” CEC Zaidi said.
Clubbing elections to the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly, the 140-member Kerala Assembly and 30 seats of Puducherry Assembly on a single day, May 16, the Commission will hold counting of votes for all phases on May 19.
The Congress is in power in Assam and Kerala while the BJP is dreaming big in Assam after entering into an alliance with Asom Gana Parishad (AGP). The BJP is also seeking to emerge as a major player in West Bengal, where there are possibilities of Congress and left joining hands directly or indirectly to take on the ruling Trinamool Congress headed by Mamata Banerjee.
This year, a new symbol has been designed for None Of The Above (NOTA) option that will be displayed on every voting machine, the CEC said. To a poser on ‘proximity’ of certain officials in West Bengal with the ruling party there, he said he would not go into names of officials or any particular State, but the EC will ensure that only those who are neutral and impartial are associated with poll-related work. “We will take appropriate action...We are keeping a watch,” he said.
Fuming over the announcement of staggered polls for Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who was announcing the list of her party candidates said, “I do not want to make any adverse comment on the conduct of the ECI which is a constitutional body, but it is quite humiliating to note that Bengal has always been subjected to step-motherly treatments like this.”
“Tamil Nadu has 238 seats while Assam is a communally volatile State which witnesses regular riots but still the ECI has preferred to conduct a two-phase election there, whereas we have been given six-phase polls. If this is not step-motherly treatment then what is!” the Chief Minister, already incensed with early deployment of Central forces in the State said.
With numerous complaints from the Opposition parties regarding the conduct of the recently-held civic elections, the ECI has deployed CRPF about 40 days in advance. The Central forces which had already started its jobs in the right earnest have been tasked with collecting firsthand accounts from the voters, about things like whether their area is peaceful and whether they can really take part in franchise etc.
Detailed video-graphed reports are being dispatched by the forces to the ECI in Delhi for its own assessment of the situation.