Chief minister Mamata Banerjee tore into the Election Commission of India and the central forces for their alleged bias on Friday, the first of the seven-phase general election in Bengal.
The Trinamool chief, speaking in a rally at Suti in Murshidabad on Friday afternoon, mounted a scathing offensive on the saffron ecosystem, accusing the central forces and the EC of being in cahoots with the Centre to tilt the electoral scales in Bengal unfairly in the BJP’s favour.
“I appreciate all our central forces, their service and always support them. However, this is unprecedented, what is happening today.... This is the first time I am seeing that they are being used as party cadres which I unequivocally condemn,” said Mamata.
“I want to ask the Election Commission of India, why in the Cooch Behar election, only the central forces are working and none from the state forces?” she asked. “How will people expect impartial polls?”
Around 56.26 lakh people voted in 5,814 polling stations for Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar. Of them, 746 polling stations were flagged as sensitive by the EC.
Nirvachan Sadan deployed 112 companies of central forces and 4,500 state police personnel in Cooch Behar, 75 companies of central forces and 3,077 state police personnel in Jalpaiguri, and 63 companies of central forces and 2,454 state police personnel in Alipurduar.
“They (the BJP) want total control. This is the same mindset that gave them the audacity to suspend nearly 150 MPs from Parliament to get 39 bills passed in their absence (last year),” she said.
“This is what they want to do with the entire nation.... Instead of free and fair, they are conducting the most unfair elections,” she added. “They turned the entire nation into a prison…. The people will have to decide, do they want to save this nation or let it get destroyed?”
Over the past couple of weeks, Trinamool, led by Mamata’s nephew and MP Abhishek Banerjee, has been attacking the EC for its alleged intentions in Bengal.
Abhishek has accused the commission’s full bench of harbouring bias against non-BJP parties.
“I am saying this clearly, this commission is compromised… as are the Bangla-birodhi (anti-Bengal), BJP-appointed commissioners. The commission that was once our pride has now bowed down to the BJP and sold its spine,” Abhishek said on April 8 in a media interaction.
As polling in the three north Bengal constituencies were held on Friday, Trinamul pointed out that the central security forces have forced polling agents at booth 2/139 at Patakamari Junior Basic School in Mathabhanga-II block of Cooch Behar outside the booth.
“Usually, polling agents are allowed to sit inside the booths. But here, the central forces resorted to highhandedness and made them sit outside. It is unfair. The central forces have no business in it. We have informed authorities concerned,” said a Trinamul functionary.
Udayan Guha, the north Bengal development minister, also took on the central forces over the Cooch Behar clashes.
“The central forces were deployed by EC much ahead of the polls. What were they doing when BJP cadres were attacking our people?” said Guha.
The BJP claimed that the central forces worked well but some in the state police acted at Trinamool's behest and didn’t mobilise the central forces properly. “The central forces did well but we expect them to be more proactive on the ground in the next phases. They should ensure free movement of voters from home to booths. We will also demand re-poll in some booths,” said Jagannath Chattopadhyay, a BJP state general secretary.
On Friday, the BJP lodged 421 complaints with the EC against Trinamool for malpractices, 303 of them from Cooch Behar alone, sources said.
Additional reporting by Main Uddin Chisti in Cooch Behar