KOLKATA: The Kolkata High Court on Tuesday asked the state election commission for the deployment of central forces in sensitive districts in the upcoming panchayat elections. The court made it also clear that the state poll panel will not have to bear the expenses for the deployment of the central force during the electoral exercise.
Responding to petitions by opposition parties demanding the deployment of central force personnel, the division bench of Chief Justice T. S. Shivagnanam AND Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya said, “The state election commission shall requisition central forces for all districts that have been declared as sensitive. On requisition, the central government shall forthwith deploy forces and the central government shall bear the costs.”
The state poll panel identified seven districts, including East Midnapore, Murshidabad, South 24 Paraganas and North 24 Parganas as sensitive.
The development came following petitions filed by state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, BJP MLA, and Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari. The petitioners had raised several points of contention such as the lack of reasonable notice period for filing nominations and the deployment of central forces to maintain law and order.
The court, however, upheld the state poll panel’s decision to conduct the rural polls on July 8 and the deadline for filing nominations on June 15. The division bench refused the plea for filing nominations online as demanded by opposition parties citing the ruling party’s highhandedness.
Five years ago, the panchayat elections in Bengal were marked by large-scale violence, with one-third of candidates unable to file their nominations and several court interventions, this year's electoral exercise in rural Bengal took an ugly shape on Tuesday, the fourth day of filing nominations, with bombs being hurled indiscriminately in front of the office of the block development officer in Bhangar, South 24 Parganas, where section 144 of the CrPC was clamped as part of the prohibitory measure.
The men in uniform had to retreat facing the attack allegedly by the ruling Trinamool Congress and subsequent retaliation by the supporters of the Indian Secular Force (ISF), a political outfit formed before the 2021 Assembly elections which sent its lone MLA from Bhangar, the minority-dominated pocket.
ISF MLA Naushad Siddiqui said the Trinamool Congress supporters attacked when the candidates of his party reached the BDO’s office. “They hurled bombs and pelted stones at us. The policemen, who were deployed in the restricted zone, fled away facing the attack by the ruling party,” he alleged.
TMC’s MLA from Canning East constituency Saukat Mollah said it was the ISF who attacked the TMC supporters.