Bengal Oppn questions use of volunteers in polls
PANCHAYAT ELECTIONS Outrage over govt not taking help from central police and paramilitary forces; Supriyo calls for Prez rule
KOLKATA: Political parties accused the Mamta Banerjee-led West Bengal government of “total failure” to maintain law and order during the rural polls resulting in the death of 14 on Monday and not taking help from Central paramilitary forces despite an offer by the home ministry.
Five years ago, over 80,000 central police and para-military personnel were deployed in the state in addition to state police forces for polls held in five phases.
This time, the state election commission (SEC), on the state government’s advice, refused to deploy the Central forces saying the state police force was adequate for handling the situation as there was no contest in about one-third of the seats, most of which were won unopposed by the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidates.
The state government was mostly dependant on civic police volunteers — an informal force raised to generate employment — to secure polling stations. About 81,000 civic police volunteers were deployed. Their inability to maintain law and order was obvious with the large scale violence.
The Supreme Court and Calcutta high court had warned the SEC about the possibility of violence and had directed the commission to ensure free and fair polling.
Former principal of Presidency College (now a university) and political scientist Amal Mukherjee termed the situation alarming and suggested invoking the President’s rule under Article 356 of the Constitution.
“On Sunday, Banerjee assured the people that they could cast their votes without fear because adequate security arrangements had been made. Her assurances have not yielded any result. It is a shame for the ruling party. There is no democracy at all in Bengal. This is nothing but fascism,” said Mukherjee.
Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury attributed Banerjee’s ambition to emerge as the face of the so-called third front prior to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls for the violence.
“Trinamool’s victory was always assured because of sheer numbers. But Banerjee wants to demolish the opposition completely so that the TMC can win all the 42 Lok Sabha seats next year and she can emerge as a strong contender for the prime minister’s post,” the Berhampore Lok Sabha MP said, predicting that this “culture of violence” will continue till the Lok Sabha polls.
Union minister of state for heavy industries and BJP MP Babul Supriyo demanded President’s rule in the state.
“Democracy has been murdered,” he alleged.
Left Front chairman and CPI(M) Politburo member Biman Bose agreed with him and said, “democracy turned into a farce today.”
SEC UNDER FIRE
Political parties said the violence could have been avoided had state election commissioner AK Singh not gone with the West Bengal government’s advice. Since April 2, the first day of submission of nomination, 31 people have died in poll related violence till Monday.
“Since the beginning SEC had been working as the stooge of Trinamool Congress,” alleged Congress legislator, Abdul Mannan.
Trinamool’s secretary general, Partha Chatterjee, however, rubbished all allegations and said that the opposition has created trouble in pockets to malign the state government, which is evident from the murder of a number of Trinamool workers.
Holding the brief for the SEC, he said that the commission managed the polling process efficiently with active cooperation from the TMC and the state government.
CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, however, asked the commission to act to restore faith in democracy or else it (SEC) will be seen as complicit to TMC’S project of destroying democracy. “Allowing TMC to get away with throttling democracy has implications well beyond West Bengal,” he said.