Kolkata, Mar 19 (UNI) The Trinamool Congress party on Friday alleged that the Election Commission has adopted a "partisan and biased" approach in respect of the ongoing elections in the state of West Bengal.
"It is becoming increasingly clear that free, fair and transparent elections in the State of West Bengal are becoming a distant reality. This is evident from the partisan and biased approach taken by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in respect of the ongoing elections in the State," the TMC said after a party delegation comprising Saugata Roy, Mahua Moitra, Pratima Mondal and Yashwant Sinha met EC officials to discuss issues related to 'free and fair elections in West Bengal'.
The TMC claimed that EC has decided to not permit the presence of State police within 100m of polling stations and only deploy Central Forces in such an arena. "If true, this decision is unprecedented and casts severe aspersions on the reputation of the police administration in the State of West Bengal. This needs to be substantiated at the appropriate level. Pertinently, this decision of the ECI is only qua the State of West Bengal and not the other four poll bound states in the country,” the letter read.
Lambasting EC's this decision, the TMC said the deployment of the central force by the ECI is to augment authorities of the state government that are under constitutional obligation to deal with law and order, not deliberately demoralise the state police personnel that have worked under different governments.
UNI BM JAL 1709