Central forces 'beating up' voters, says TMC; Mamata planning massacre: BJP

Kolkata: The seventh and final phase of polling ended in West Bengal on Sunday with complaints and counter complaints against both the central and state police forces and also against the Election Commission of India, with reports of sporadic violence in some parts, though there were no reports of casualties.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her MP Derek O’Brien shot off two letters to the ECI alleging “undue interference by the central government” and “intervention by the ruling party at the Centre” and also poll code violation the way Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Kedarnath temple was broadcast on television respectively.

Significantly, this is perhaps one of the very few elections in the state where the ruling party cried hoarse over the “high handedness of the central armed police forces (CAPF)”. Several Trinamool Congress leaders, including CM Banerjee, claimed the forces were intimidating voters and asking them to vote for BJP.


“The BJP is fomenting trouble and is using the central forces to intimidate voters. The torture that BJP workers and central forces have carried out today (Sunday) is unprecedented. I have never seen anything like this before,” Banerjee said after casting her vote. Political observers believe that this was perhaps one of the toughest fights that the BJP has ever put up in the state against the ruling TMC.

Meanwhile, central ministers continued to put pressure on the TMC. Urging the Election Commission not to withdraw central forces till the model code of conduct is in force, Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that BJP has two concerns as far as polling in West Bengal is concerned.

“Voters are being intimidated, and second, genuine voters are not being allowed to vote. To address these issues, BJP demands that central forces be deployed in the state till the Model Code of Conduct is in force. We are apprehensive about the fact there can be narasanhar (massacre) in the state after the polls as the chief minister vowed revenge inch by inch after the elections,” said Sitharaman.

Reacting to Sitharaman’s comment, Derek O’Brien, leader of TMC’s Parliamentary party in Rajya Sabha said, “Central forces are taking orders from BJP, mercilessly beating up citizens and Trinamool workers.