Samikhsya Bureau
Cracking the whip, Election Commission of India on Wednesday cut short the campaign period of nine Lok Sabha seats in Bengal, which will go to polls on May 19. West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee slammed the EC for allegedly being guided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah.
The EC’s move comes a day after violence during a roadshow by BJP president Shah on Tuesday in Kolkata and a multitude of clashes, murders and shootings in the run-up to Sunday’s polls. The poll campaign, the EC ordered, would come to an end at 10 pm Thursday, almost 19 hours ahead of the scheduled time.
Polling has been completed in 33 out of the 42 constituencies of the state. Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat, Jaynagar, Mathurapur, Jadavpur, Diamond Harbour, South and North Kolkata, will vote in the final phase, on May 19. The mandate is to be announced on May 23.
The EC said it had taken the decision after an orgy of pre-poll violence in the state. It, the poll panel said, was also “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 poll body also took the decision to relieve additional director general (CID) Rajeev Kumar and home secretary Atri Bhattacharya from their responsibilities.
Kumar has been asked to report at the Union home ministry at national capital by 10 am on Thursday.
“Atri Bhattacharya, principal secretary, home and hill affairs, stands relieved from his current charge immediately for having interfered in the process of conducting the election by directing CEO, West Bengal. State chief secretary shall look after the charge of home secretary”, deputy election commissioners Sudeep Jain and Chandrabhushan Kumar told a news conference in New Delhi on Wednesday night.
Jain said West Bengal chief secretary Moloy Dey would look after the office of the home secretary until May 19.
The EC also said that this was 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.
Earlier in the day, a delegation of Trinamool leaders, led by party spokesperson Derek O’Brien, approached the EC and submitted video footage to back their allegation that BJP members had vandalised Bengal icon Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar’s statue during a clash.
Addressing a rally at Diamond Harbour on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the entire country had seen how TMC has converted ‘gantantra’ (republic) to ‘goondatantra’ (hooliganism). The Prime Minister accused TMC of “facilitating” violence in the state”.
“We’re facing stones, our workers are being hung. We are only tolerating all of this to save Bengal,” he said.
Reacting sharply to ECI’s invocation of article 324, curtailing election campaign time by 24 hours, and removal of home secretary Bhattacharya and ADG (CID) Kumar ahead of May 19 LS election, chief minister Banerjee claimed the move was a directive from Prime Minister Modi and BJP president Shah.
Slamming the ECI’s deputy election commissioner Jain, Banerjee claimed that the wrong doers have been awarded and wronged have been punished referring to Tuesday’s vandalism of a bust of Vidyasagar and clashes at Amit Shah road show in north Kolkata.
She said the retired IAS and IPS officers (Ajay Naik and Vivek Dubey) have been given full authority to run the show, while the state IAS and IPS officers were rendered mute spectators. “The appointment of those two retired officers is illegal,” claimed Banerjee during a media conference at her Kalighat residence.
She said now people would give fitting reply to the ECI and Modi and Amit Shah, adding that they would be defeated at the polls.
She said this ECI move was unprecedented and it was an insult to the people of Bengal and announced a state-wide protest on Thursday. Banerjee conducted a ‘padayatra’ in Kolkata along with TMC leaders and workers in protest against vandalism of Vidyasagar’s bust allegedly by the BJP workers.
She said the ECI decision was to give advantage to Modi, who has two election meetings in Bengal on Thursday, and deprive others from reaching out to people for final leg of the campaign for the last phase polls to nine seats in West Bengal.
Banerjee also alleged that the violence during the Amit Shah’s road show was pre-planned and pre-meditated and said her fight against Modi and Shah would be continued.
She also claimed that deputy election commissioner had threatened the IAS and IPS officers of West Bengal, and wondered what the state home minster and ADG/CID did (to deserve punishment).
