A delegation of the Bharatiya Janata Party wrote to Kolkata Police Commissioner Soumen Mitra alleging foul play by use of proxy votes, ahead of the state’s eight phase Assembly elections from 27 March.
The letter was undersigned by BJP MP Swapan Dasgupta and senior leaders Sabyasachi Dutta and Shishir Bajoria, and asked for immediate action “under the provisions of Corrupt Practices in the Representatives of People's Act".
The letter alleged that some police officers were collecting copies of voter and aadhar cards across force ranks under the banner of Welfare Association, reported PTI. The letter claimed that the operation to "enable collection of postal ballot and effect proxy votes" was “tantamount to taking away someone's fundamental right to vote".
BJP, in the letter, named inspector Santanu Sinha Biswas as the leader of the “illegal exercise”, and two sub-inspectors Tapan Kr Maity and Bijitaswo Raut for assisting him, among others, added the report.
The saffron party letter asked for immediate suspension of the officers carrying out this alleged exercises, adding that some of them were seen at Uttirno building in Alipore on 13 February, pledging alliance to Trinamool Congress in the presence of party MP Subrata Bakshi, according to the report.
West Bengal Polls
The West Bengal Assembly election will be held from 27 March to 29 April in eight phases, following which the results will be declared on 2 May. This makes it the longest ever polling in the state so far, seemingly based on “assessments of law and order”, according to the Election Commission of India (EC)‘s Sunil Arora on Friday, 26 February.
This decision has been met with opposition from CM Mamata Banerjee, who claimed this was done at the behest of PM Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.
The term for the 294-member West Bengal Assembly ends on 30 May. A party would need to secure 148 seats to attain majority.
EC has appointed two special observers for the West Bengal polls and a third observer will be sent when needed, according to EC.
(With inputs from PTI)
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