Left seeks EC's intervention for fair polls in Bengal

Accusing Trinamool Congress of creating widespread fear psychosis through "terror and intimidation" in West Bengal, the Left parties on Tuesday sought Election Commission's intervention to ensure free and fair polls.

A Left Front delegation, comprising senior leaders of CPI-M, CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc, met top EC officials in New Delhi and said the commission should not have "double standards" in dealing with the situation in the state.

While a Congress candidate was arrested in Uttar Pradesh for hate speech against BJP leader Narendra Modi, "numerous" such intimidating speeches were being delivered openly by TMC ministers and leaders against the opposition and even election officials, but no action has been taken so far, they said.

CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said top EC officials assured them that they would take necessary action to ensure free and fair elections in the state.

Giving examples, Yechury alleged that a block development officer was last week warned by Trinamool "elements" that he would be "beheaded" if he continued to remove the wall-writings of their party from official buildings.

"The BDO lodged an FIR but no action has been taken so far," he said, adding, "Even today, just when we were meeting the EC, poll officials were beaten up in Howrah by TMC goons."

His senior party colleague and LF chairman Biman Basu alleged that there were "numerous" instances of the model code being violated by TMC leaders, including Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, her ministers and workers, which they had brought to the EC's notice.

Assaults, molestations, attacks and lodging of fabricated cases against opposition activists were "creating unprecedented tension prohibiting the holding of free and fair elections in the state," Yechury and Basu told reporters.

While 147 Left activists have been killed since the panchayat polls last year, several thousands have left their hearths and homes due to attacks and intimidation by the ruling party in West Bengal.

Asked how many seats would the Left Front win in the upcoming general elections, Basu, in a tongue-in-cheek-remark, said, "Since the chief minister has already declared victory in all the 42 seats, we don't have anything left for us."

However, Yechury said the Left had got almost 40 per cent votes, even in the "most-rigged and most-violent" panchayat polls.

Observing that TMC workers had "driven out many voters from their villages and were obstructing them from returning to their homes, Basu demanded adequate arrangements to ensure that the evicted persons could exercise their franchise and can return to their homes without fear.

Maintaining that unprecedented violence had occurred during last year's panchayat polls, the CPI-M leaders said this time too "violence has been unleashed by the ruling party on the opposition during campaigns and the unabashed bias of the police raises apprehensions of a collapse of law and order during the April-May elections."

Alleging that many officers in the state administration were working in a "partisan manner", the Left Front leaders also demanded removal of police superintendents of Medinipur, Bardhaman, Bankura and Nadia.

Yechury and Basu said the Trinamool government had distributed funds worth over Rs 88 lakh in Bankura district alone for distribution to youth clubs, without the concurrence of the poll panel.

"Obviously, this is being done with an eye on influencing voters," they said, adding that while the district magistrate stopped distributing the cheques "only after our complaint, but since the beneficiaries are named, the purpose has been served and intention is clear."

Giving examples, Yechury said threats and intimidation were being taken to such levels that "women in remote villages are being presented with white sarees and told by TMC men that they would need them in future, indicating that their husbands would be killed."

Threats were also being meted out to the people by even prominent TMC leaders who were telling them that neither the EC officials nor the central paramilitary forces would stay in the villages permanently to protect them.

The Left Front leaders, who also included Manju Majumdar (CPI), Joyanta Roy (Forward Bloc), Manoj Bhattacharya (RSP) and Rabin Deb (CPI-M), said such incidents, which were going on in a large-scale, were a threat to democracy and the basic rights of the people.