As the polls for the seventh and last phase of Lok Sabha elections will be held on May 19, a delegation of opposition parties on Thursday met the Election Commission over its decision to curtail the campaign time in West Bengal, citing violent incidents during the roadshow by Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah, and expressed its strong dissatisfaction.
“However, we did not receive a satisfactory response from the Election Commission,” said, Congress leader Abhishek Singvi, who led the delegation of non-NDA parties, after the meeting.
The Congress leader said that all the non-NDA parties have alleged that the BJP is behind the violence and the vandalisation of Bengal icon Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar’s statue during Shah’s roadshow.
“The EC did not even decide who has done vandalisation and without any quasi-judicial procedure, the Commission had cut short campaigning”, Singhvi alleged.
Singhvi also said that the decision by the EC gives benefit to the culprit for their wrongdoing, and the innocent have to pay as they have to cut short their campaigning time by a day.
“All the evidence are pointing out that the BJP was behind the violence. Then why should the non-NDA parties pay for it?” he asked.
On Wednesday, the EC had announced that the campaigning period will come to an end at 10 pm on Thursday, almost 19 hours ahead of the scheduled time.
The EC had said it took the decision after the pre-poll violence in the state and added that it “was deeply anguished at the vandalism done to the statue of iconic leader Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. It is hoped that the vandals are traced by the state administration”.
The EC had also said that ‘this is probably the first time that the poll body has invoked Article 324 in this manner but it may not be last in cases of repetition of lawlessness and violence which vitiate the conduct of polls in a peaceful manner”.
However, in a poll rally in Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleged that the statue of Vidyasagar was broken by “TMC goondas” and added that “those involved in this act should be given strong punishment”. (UNI)
