BJP 'fact-finding' team wants CBI and NIA to probe Bengal panchayat poll violence

Findings of 5-member panel include: Opp nominees not allowed to file nominations, threat to abduct candidates' kin and more; Trinamul calls MPs' report diversionary tactic

JP Nadda receives the report by the BJP Fact Finding Team, constituted to inquire about the incidents of violence during the Panchayat Election in Bengal.: Twitter/@JPNadda

Sougata Mukhopadhyay, TT, Calcutta, 26.07.23 :  The former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad-led BJP "fact-finding" team looking into panchayat poll-related brutalities in Bengal suggested in its report that all cases of violence be investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation under the monitoring of the Calcutta High Court.

The panel also recommended that all bomb blast cases need to be referred to the National Investigating Agency for probe.

“State election commission and State election commissioner shockingly failed in maintaining the constitutional sanctity of a free and fair election,” the party probe panel concluded about the alleged “biased” role of the poll conducting body and its chief, “thereby compromising its integrity and neutrality. Rather, they were accomplices in the violence led victory of TMC”, the report, which was submitted to party president JP Nadda on Wednesday, stated.

The team, which comprised party MPs Satya Pal Singh, Rekha Verma, Brij Lal and Rajdeep Roy besides Prasad, had visited North and South 24 Parganas districts as well as the violence-hit areas of Cooch Behar on 12-14 July, even before the poll counting had been formally concluded.

“Received the report by the BJP Fact Finding Team, constituted to inquire about the incidents of violence during the Panchayat Election in West Bengal. The state government's arrogance and utter disrespect for democratic processes are dismaying. The BJP will continue to fight for the people's voice in West Bengal in a democratic way” tweeted Nadda along with a picture of the committee members handing him over the report.

“We had the misfortune of witnessing a rather perverse and shameful picture of democracy under Mamata Banerjee in Bengal,” Prasasd later stated at a press conference in Delhi adding, “We noticed a sickening symbol of shameful democracy in the elections.”

Prasad elaborated on the broad bases of “Trinamul Congress’s coercive tactics” which were the committee findings from the ground: “(Opposition candidates) were not allowed to file nominations. If they managed to succeed, they wouldn’t be allowed to campaign under threat of kidnapping of their children. If they still insist, their supporters would be attacked and killed with impunity. And if they won, they weren’t given victory certificates till they gave an undertaking of joining the TMC.”

“More than 50 people have lost their lives till date in the electoral violence,” the committee stated in its report.

Drawing attention to “repeated and deliberate defiance and contempt of the Court orders that are part of the judicial records”, the panel stated in its report: “In the course of our visit, we repeatedly heard complaints that list of sensitive booths were not made available to central paramilitary forces deployed as per order of Hon’ble High Court of Calcutta in spite of demand and no state administration permitted their adequate and appropriate deployment.”

“It felt that the entire machinery under the control of the state election commission was determined to ensure Mamata Banerjee’s victory in the polls, by hook or by crook,” Prasad said, citing the team’s experiences of meeting the violence victims from different parts of the state.

The all-women fact finding team which reached Bengal on July 18 to probe alleged atrocities inflicted on women during the rural polls has already submitted its report to the BJP president on July 20. “This report exposes the utter state of lawlessness in West Bengal and the state government's insensitivity towards political adversaries. The BJP will never tolerate this oppression of the people,” Nadda had stated after receipt of that report.

Trinamul Congress retorted to Prasad’s comments stating the “BJP was clearly perturbed and rattled”. “Fact finding missions of the BJP are visiting Bengal. But they aren’t visiting Manipur. There are no statements on Manipur in the Parliament by the Prime Minister. At a time when the country is keenly waiting for the Prime Minister to speak, these are diversionary tactics to send BJP ministers to non-BJP states to speak about violence there but not in Manipur,” said Sashi Panja, Trinamul leader and minister.

“The truth is that the opposition unleashed violence in Bengal and made videos of it. Bengal knows about those fake videos and the falsity of those claims,” she stated, adding: “Stop maligning Bengal and look at Manipur.”