West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday sent a letter in the direction of the State Election Commissioner requesting the immediate deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) to “remove the environment of fear and build confidence” within the electorate who are voting in municipal elections across the state.
“As pointed out in the past, there are regular instances of our candidates being intimidated, being threatened with life, over the phone, and in person. In all cases, the local police are just silent spectators and in most cases refuse to register a complaint,” the state BJP said in the letter.
“Also, our candidates are not being allowed to campaign, put up banners, flags, wall writing. Here again, the local police are not willing to help and in many cases take a blatant partisan line in support of the ruling party,” it said.
In particular, Sainthia municipality, specifically the BJP, stated that the police in the area have been making calls to citizens who want to encourage them to vote for candidates for the Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate and not to join the BJP.
“We once again ask the State Election Commission for the deployment of CAPF to remove the environment of fear,” the letter said.
In response to the matter, BJP leader and Leader of the Opposition West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari stated, “West Bengal government is misusing its power and is assembling goons of a particular community, but we are ready to fight the polls. State Election Commission is a branch organization of TMC.”
The West Bengal State Election Commission has delayed the state municipal elections, scheduled between January 22 and February 12.
