The leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, met the Election Commision's special police observer Anil Kumar Sharma on Monday and asked him to restrain high-ranking Bengal police officers who were allegedly working in favour of the Trinamul Congress.

Adhikari's complaint comes on a day when a delegation of Trinamul leaders met the full bench of the commission in New Delhi and demanded the removal of the heads of the CBI, ED, NIA, and IT. The delegation claimed those officials were operating under the directives of the central government and unfairly targeting Trinamul ministers and leaders.

“Police are the main opposition against the people of the state. We have asked the special police observer to retrain the high-ranking officers of state and create a proper democratic atmosphere for a free and fair election,” Adhikari, flanked by BJP leaders Jagannath Chatterjee and Sisir Bajoria, told the media after the meeting.

“Police need to understand that they are paid by the people and not by Mamata Banerjee,” Adhikari added.

Political observers say Adhikari's complaint against the police was an effort to counter Trinamul's claims that central agencies were targeting the party’s leaders, candidates and ministers to create disturbance during the poll campaign.

Adhikari provided purported evidence of violence during the 2021 Assembly elections and last year's panchayat polls to Sharma.

“The high court mandated panchayat elections to be conducted with the assistance of central forces. Consequently, the central government dispatched 820 companies of Central Armed Paramilitary Forces (CAPF). However, they were rendered inactive and not permitted to operate effectively. Consequently, elections in many panchayats across the state did not take place,” Adhikari said.

The BJP leader said he had written to the governor C.V. Ananda Bose and would be writing to the Union home secretary and the chief secretary of the state so that central forces remained deployed in Bengal for a month after the elections.