The Opposition on Saturday alleged the State Election Commissioner (SEC) of not possessing any security plan for upcoming panchayat polls and demanded armed personnel at booth level instead of premises as assured by the state government earlier.
The state government has written to five states namely Odisha, Assam, Punjab, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to send armed forces to Bengal for holding the single-day poll on 14 May. The Opposition parties, however, are not ready to take the development into consideration unless the commissioner placed a fullproof plan of the availability of armed forces.
Apart from elections, armed forces are required for dispatching 2.92 lakh poll personnel and ballot papers to 58,467 polling booths, man polling booths/stations on the day of poll, provide security to the counting centres, guard strong rooms where ballots are kept, conduct route march to reassure voters and arrange for point patrolling in high sensitive zones.
Representatives of all the Opposition parties complained that the commissioner held the meeting and sought their suggestion on ensuring security during the polls to comply the High Court directive but did not come forward with any plan.
“The outcome of the meeting was a zero. SEC asked us what we wanted for the polls but said nothing about its own plan. Where was consultation done with us? The violence has increased since the polls were announced last month but polls are being held in one phase instead of three,” said BJP vice-president Joy Prakash Majumdar.
Mr Majumdar said that he had sought the commission’s intervention into a complaint that the ruling party has ordered for printing of ballot papers in the districts.
CPI-M leader Rabin Deb complained that the commission couldn’t provide them the figures of security personnel that would be deployed. “Our candidates were forced to withdraw nomination and water connection and power lines were snapped in those areas. We demand action against them,” Mr Deb said..
The Forward Bloc and CPI-M demanded six and four armed personnel respectively for each of the booths.
PDS secretary Samir Putatunda told the commissioner that his party wants his party wants at least three armed personnel for each of the 58,467 polling booths, and 10 armed personnel for polling stations hosting five or more polling booths.
“We wanted to know the number of uncontested seats on the last day of withdrawal. The commissioner had no answer. We asked him if the forces from outside states would enter Bengal on Wednesday. It went unanswered. We then told the commissioner that we would oppose any move to fill up the gap in armed forces with civic volunteers or home guards. In that case we will move court again,” the PDS leader said.
The commission has to get the security plan ready before it submits the plan to the high court by 4 May. The security plan has to drawn keeping in mind several factors other than providing security at the polling booths.