'Voting wasn't free and fair' Bengal civic polls: BJP moves Calcutta High Court to seek central forces

Party alleges state election commission failed to ensure free and fair voting, hearing on Wednesday

The matter was raised before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice R Bharadwaj and has been scheduled for hearing on Wednesday.: File picture

TT Bureau   |   Calcutta   |  15.02.22: The Bengal BJP has moved the Calcutta High Court with the demand for deployment of central security forces for the upcoming elections to the 108 civic bodies in the state.

Referring to the just-concluded elections to the four municipal corporations – Siliguri, Chandernagore, Bidhannagar and Asansol—which the Trinamul made a clean sweep of, the main Opposition party in the state placed the demand for the central forces to ensure free and fair polls.

The matter was raised before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice R Bharadwaj and has been scheduled for hearing on Wednesday.

Elections to the 108 civic bodies are scheduled for February 27.

The BJP had demanded that the elections to the four municipal corporations be held under the supervision of central security forces, but the court had directed the state election commission to keep the poll process violence free.  While there were no largescale violence and attacks, but threats and intimidation was carried out throughout the day.

BJP counsel Billwadal Bhattacharya claimed that the state election commission, despite its assurances to the high court, had failed to ensure free and fair elections.

In its petition, the BJP has demanded that the state poll panel be instructed to deploy central paramilitary forces at least 72 hours before the date of elections till the day of counting.

The petitioner has also demanded that independent general observers be stationed in each of the municipalities which are going to the polls.  

The run-up to the civic polls has been marred with threats, intimidation, coercion and physical attacks. The Trinamul Congress has already registered victories in four of the municipalities--- Dinhata, Sainthia, Budge Budge and Suri. In many other places there were complaints that Opposition nominees, from either the BJP or the CPM or the Congress, were attacked and stopped by Trinamul workers from filing their nominations. In some places, the prospective candidates were abducted from their homes and family members threatened.

The BJP counsel alleged in places where candidates could file nominations, they were forced to withdraw them later. Referring to Saturday’s election for the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation where the Trinamul polled 73.95 per cent of the votes, advocate Sabyasachi Chattopadhyay referred to an attack on a young lawyer and resident of Salt Lake’s ward 32, who had her fingers broken allegedly by Trinamul workers.

As per polling details that have emerged since Monday,  in some booths the numbers are heavily skewed in favour of the ruling Trinamul.

For example, in Asansol Muncipal Corporation’s booth 54, of the total 485 votes, Trinamul polled 452, while the CPM had 27 and 26 votes, respectively. Similarly, in booth 96, Trinamul received 500 of the 518 votes polled, while the CPM had seven and the BJP 11 votes respectively.

On the other hand, in booths like 10A, 15 and 20, the CPM had more votes than the Trinamul, though the difference wasn’t much, indicating that people were allowed to vote freely in these booths.