BJP plea: Central forces in booths of three constituencies

The party has also demanded that Bengal or Calcutta police not be allowed within 200 metres of the bypoll booths

The letter demanded no officer or staff of the state government be deputed on poll duty “…specially inside a polling station and as sector officers”.: Shutterstock

Arkamoy Datta Majumdar   |   TT  |  Calcutta   |  14.09.21: The BJP has written to Bengal’s chief electoral officer demanding the deployment of central forces in all the booths of the three constituencies — Bhowanipore, Samsherganj and Jangipur — where bypolls will be held on September 30.

The party has also demanded that Bengal or Calcutta police not be allowed within 200 metres of the bypoll booths. “The CAPF should arrive well in time to ensure area domination else they will have no other option but to be guided by the local police that is fully politicised,” read the BJP letter.

BJP MPs Arjun Singh, Saumitra Khan, Trinamul turncoat Dinesh Trivedi and BJP leader Shishir Bajoria on Monday met chief electoral officer Aariz Aftab and handed over the letter to him.

The letter also demanded  no officer or staff of the state government be deputed on poll duty “…specially inside a polling station and as sector officers”.

This appeal was made in reference to a statement made by the state government employees and teachers' unions, who had committed their support to “ensure her (Mamata Banerjee) victory”.

BJP’s Nandigram MLA and Bengal’s leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari also filed two petitions with Biman Banerjee, the Speaker of the Bengal Assembly, urging him to disqualify the memberships of BJP MLAs Tanmoy Ghosh and Biswajit Das.

Ghosh, the MLA from Bishnupur, and Das, the MLA from Bagda — both Trinamul turncoats — went back to their old party on August 30 and 31, respectively. Sources said Adhikari had written to both, demanding clarifications within a week, but received no reply.

Nominations filed

BJP’s Bhowanipore candidate Priyanka Tibrewal filed her nomination papers on Monday, accompanied by party leaders Suvendu Adhikari, Arjun Singh and others. She sought blessings at a temple before filing her nomination at the Survey Building in Alipore. The CPM’s Bhowanipore candidate, Shreejib Biswas, also submitted his nomination papers on Monday.