With just two weeks to go before the first phase of polling in West Bengal, newly appointed special general observer Alok Sinha arrived in Kolkata on April 3. A notification announcing the appointment of special observers to five states, including West Bengal, was made by the Election Commission (EC) on April 2.
The EC had removed Saumya Roy from the position of Deputy Commissioner of Police (Kolkata South West Division). The IPS officer’s wife is Arundhuti Moitra alias Lovely Moitra, a Trinamool Congress MLA from Sonarpur in South 24 Parganas.
Reacting to the transfer of Mr. Roy, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that if a family member of some officer is in politics, he or she need not be transferred.
Earlier on March 18, the EC had removed West Bengal Director-General of Police Rajeev Kumar. Sanjay Mukherjee has been appointed as the DGP of State police. As a part of preparations for the general election, the EC has transferred district magistrates of Purba Medinipur, Jhargram, Purba Bardhaman, and Birbhum districts of the State.
In the past week, there were changes made in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal with the EC transferring two senior officials — additional chief electoral officer Amit Roy Chowdhury and joint chief electoral officer Rahul Nath.
In an attempt to ensure free and fair elections, the poll body has deployed about 177 companies of Central forces in the State by April 1. For this year, the poll body has made it mandatory that the route march of the Central forces will be uploaded on the district website and Chief Electoral Officer’s website.
Political observer and psephologist Biswanath Chakraborty said that considering the history of political violence in West Bengal, making the details of route march public is a welcome step. The first phase of elections will be held across three seats in Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar on April 19.
There are 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal and elections will be held in seven phases.
