BHUBANESWAR: The State unit of BJP on Friday sought Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s intervention in the issue of wide-scale electoral violence during the panchayat polls with active cooperation of senior Government officials.
“We would like to draw your attention to the massive State-sponsored electoral violence by BJD goons with active cooperation of senior bureaucrats,” BJP spokesperson Sajjan Sharma said in a letter to the Union Home Minister.
The BJP has complained against four officials, including three in the Chief Minister’s Office and another senior police official.
“The ruling BJD unleashed a reign of terror to capture power in panchayat elections by not only using force but widely rigging the polls. We still apprehend continuance of violence by the ruling BJD against BJP candidates and workers in the coming days,” he said.
“We apprehend that counting of Zilla Parishad elections will be rigged and when the results are announced, we may end up with substantially lesser number of seats,” Sharma said.
The BJP leader said even though audio-visual evidence of poll violence and rigging were produced before the State Election Commission, no credible action had been taken. The results of the Zilla Parishad zones will be announced on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the State BJP will celebrate ‘Vijay Utsav’ in the party office here for its impressive performance in the panchayat polls.