Political violence relating to the panchayat election continued in West Bengal even as Central forces started arriving in the State on Friday as per the directions of the Calcutta High Court. A Trinamool Congress leader was shot dead at Adra in Purulia district late on Thursday.
During a hearing at the High Court on Friday, the Additional Solicitor General representing the Union of India said that orders had been issued by the Union government for the deployment of 315 companies of Central forces in the State. The forces have arrived in Bankura district which borders Purulia, where Trinamool Congress leader Dhananjay Chaubey was shot outside the party office.
Meanwhile, the High Court said the State Election Commission (SEC) should not shy away from making additional requisitioning of Central forces. After the High Court’s order on June 21 describing the SEC’s requisitioning of 22 companies as “highly inadequate” and directions to the Commission to deploy forces not less than what was deployed during the 2013 panchayat poll, the Commission requisitioned 800 companies of Central forces.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Uday Kumar, while hearing contempt petitions against the SEC on Friday, directed the Commission to file an affidavit on whether there has been wilful non-compliance with the directions of the Court.
During the proceedings in the court, the counsel representing one of the petitioners pointed out that 20,585 nominations for contesting the poll have been withdrawn. The Bench directed the SEC to address this issue in the affidavit. The matter of contempt petition will come up for hearing again on June 27.
Congress candidate held
Meanwhile, two persons including a Congress candidate, Arshad Hossain, were arrested on Friday in connection with the murder of the Trinamool leader in Purulia. Protests erupted over the incident in Adra during the day and party supporters blocked roads and burnt tyres in protest against the incident.
Avijit Banerjee, Superintendent of Police, Purulia said an investigation is under way. State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that the ruling establishment was trying to implicate Congress workers in the incident, even though the party workers have nothing to do with the crime.
Prior to this incident, eight political activists were killed since the notification of the panchayat poll was issued in the State on June 8. Three persons were killed in Bhangar, two in Murshidabad, and one each in Malda, Cooch Behar and Uttar Dinajpur districts over the past 15 days. Those killed include supporters of the Trinamool Congress, Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Indian Secular Front, and Bharatiya Janata Party. The election to three-tier panchayats of approximately 73,000 seats is scheduled on July 8.
Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari as well as other leaders of Opposition parties said that the number of phases of the panchayat election should be increased. Mr. Adhikari, who met State Election Commissioner Rajiva Sinha, said that it was not possible for 315 companies to provide security cover across 62,000 polling booths in the State and therefore the election should be held in multiple phases.
