Bengal election commission seeks High Court help on force for rural polls

KOLKATA: The West Bengal election commission on Tuesday sought the help of the Calcutta HC for details on deployment of security forces by the state for the panchayat polls. Ten persons have died so far across the state in poll-related violence. The high court will hear the petition on Wednesday.

CPM central committee member Goutam Deb held the Trinamool Congress government responsible for the deaths of so many political party activists before the panchayat elections.

“The state election commission wanted deployment of Central forces from the first day of filing nomination papers. But the state government did not arrange for adequate armed forces during the first two phases of filing of nomination papers.

In the absence of any central force and other armed forces during filing of nominations, ruling party activists had managed to attack opposition candidates and many people had to sacrifice their lives,” Deb alleged.

CPM, Congress and BJP have met state election commissioner Mira Pandey several times and urged her to deploy adequate security. All these parties also met Governor MK Narayanan for the same reason. Armed forces are yet to be deployed.

A senior state home department official said on Tuesday that the government would be able to settle the issue of force deployment before July 2, the first day of three-phase panchayat elections. The state government has written to the Centre, seeking 300 companies of central forces before the panchayat elections. “We expect the get the central force before the polls,” he added.

In another development, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has asked two of her ministers – Madan Mitra and Rachpal Singh – to leave for Uttarakhand to help more than 1,000 tourists from the state stranded there due to heavy rainfall.