EC pledges violence-free West Bengal polls

Opposition parties demand multi-phase election and deployment of central forces

IArchisman Dinda t is not only political parties who are trying to emulate the Bihar model for West Bengal polls in 2016. The Election Commission of India (ECI) credited with conducting free and fair, violence-free election there, also wants to follow the model in the east.

A full bench of the ECI, led by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Dr Nasim Zaidi, said the constitutional body will perform its constitutional obligations and ensure the assembly elections in the state are held in free, fair and peaceful manner.

“In our endeavour to hold free and fair elections, we will do all that is needed to ensure smooth conduct of polls next year,” Zaidi told reporters here after a series of meetings with district magistrates, police officials and political parties.

“There will be 100 per cent availability of central paramilitary forces in all the 770,000 polling stations all over the state well in advance, who all will be used for area domination and confidence-building measures. The observers will be looking into the booth-wise and areawise deployment of the central forces,” he said.

“There would be a minimum two to three layer security to ensure voters reach the polling station without any threat and intimidation.”

On the law and order situation in the state, Zaidi said, “We came here to assess the situation. We have already directed our election machinery to take note of, record and document any incident with political overtones and provide it to the EC.”

Three initiatives

Zaidi also announced three initiatives that have been taken up keeping elections in mind. “One is ‘Suvidha’, which is a single-window system where permission for holding rallies, public meetings, loudspeakers, etc, will be given to parties in 24 hours. This has started operations from the recent Bihar polls. The second is ‘Samadhan’, a grievance redressal system for complaints such as political reaction, electoral rolls, model code of conduct, and others.

The third initiative is called ‘Sugam’, which will address payment issues related to transport operators from whom vehicles are requisitioned,” the CEC said.

The opposition parties in the state, namely Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress party have sought multi-phase polls keeping in view the violence that was witnessed in the state during the Panchayat (rural body) elections and municipal polls.