KOLKATA: The Election Commission has refused to accept a West Bengal government report designating only 30 per cent of the booths across the state as ‘sensitive’. Expressing apprehension of largescale poll violence, the BJP had earlier appealed to the poll panel to declare the entire state as ‘super-sensitive’.
The collated report of district magistrates and superintendents of police of 23 districts of the state designated 28 lakh of 79 lakh booths in West Bengal as ‘sensitive’.
But deputy Election Commission Sudip Jain refused to accept the report at a recent meeting with police and administration and asked the SPs and DMs to do a proper analysis and submit a fresh report to the commission.
The final decision on designating the booths as sensitive rests with the EC, which will announce its decision four days prior to the polls.
The TMC, on the other hand, is planning to complain to the EC against the conduct of central paramilitary forces deployed in the state, accusing them of intimidating people.
While both Education Minister Partha Chatterjee and Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim questioned the impartiality of the central forces and said it should not act at the behest of the BJP, controversial Birbhum district TMC president called termed the forces “Modi’s dalal” and asked party workers to be prepared to deal with them in every booth.
Reacting to TMC members’ remarks against central forces, state BJP general secretary Sayantan Basu said: “The TMC is scared of central forces as it knows that they will beat up TMC goons on the streets if they try to cause any trouble during the polls.”
Some 10 companies of CRPF personnel have been deployed across south Bengal districts and are conducting route marches and door-to-door communication asking people not to be afraid of political goons. Some 35 more companies of central forces are expected to reach the state soon.