West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh. (Express photo by Partha Paul/Files)
State BJP president Dilip Ghosh on Wednesday said there could be around one lakh nominations for panchayat polls if the SEC allows e-filing of papers. “The (high) court has understood the state government is using SEC to remain in power. That is why it has given an order asking the poll panel to accept nominations filed via email,’’ he said, referring to the court’s recent order asking SEC to accept nominations of hundreds of candidates sent via email.
“If the SEC allows those candidates, who could not file their nominations due to the ruling party’s terror, to file their papers via email then we feel that there would be about one lakh more nominations.” Ghosh also likened the ruling Trinamool Congress to a snake and said it was scared to see the BJP’s rise in the state.
‘Poll violence supported by TMC, govt’
Union Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday described the pre-panchayat election violence as a “highly-sophisticated quality of rigging” and that it is “unprecedented” in the history of Indian elections.
Speaking on the sidelines of an event at Indian Museum, Kolkata, Vardhan said, “The time has come when the people in Bengal have started realising that there is only one alternative for them… It (the violence) is most unfortunate, most unprecedented. I think never in the history of Indian election have we seen such highly sophisticated quality of rigging…”
The nomination process for panchayat polls witnessed violence across the state. “The violence of this nature is supported and backed by the ruling party and the state government. I think the government has to understand that they cannot fool the people of this country for all times to come,” he added.