West Bengal may have problems in some parts as alleged by the political parties, but all the polling booths were not sensitive as per their claim, special central police observer for the state Vivek Dubey said Monday.
Stressing that the Election Commisson of Indias primary objective was to hold free and fair elections in West Bengal, Dubey said political parties can make claim but they also have to provide evidence to prove their point.
The people of West Bengal have only one demand- they want to give their vote in a free and fair manner. The election commission will ensure that, Dubey told reporters here.
There are problems in West Bengal and so the election commission has decided to go for a seven-phase polling. But this is not correct that all the booths of the state are sensitive. The political parties can make claim but they will have to give evidence in support of their allegation," the IPS officer said.
On whether central forces would be deployed in all the booths, Dubey said, We are yet to decide on the deployment matter. We will see the existing state forces and then examine the availability of central forces and strategies the force management".
During the day, Dubey met representatives of different political parties at the ECI office here before holding meetings with senior BSF and CRPF officials at the Port guest strategizing the possible deployment of forces in the first two phases of upcoming general elections in the state.
Dubey, who was accompanied by Chief Electoral Officer Ariz Aftab, then went to state secretariat at Nabanna to meet chief secretary Moloy Dey and Home Secretary Atri Bhattacharyya before attending video-conference with District Magistrates and Superintendent of Police of the districts which are going into polls in the first three phases of elections.
Meanwhile, the BJP alleged that state Chief Electoral Officer, Ariz Aftab was acting as an "agent" of the ruling Trinamool Congress and expressed its no confidence in him.
In fact, a delegation of BJP leaders led by party's convenor of the election management committee in West Bengal Mukul Roy refused to participate in Mondays meeting with Dubey in the presence of Aftab.
Roy and his party leaders attended the meeting only after the CEO stepped out of the room.
The meeting was with the observer not with the CEO. Why will he be there? We have told him (special police observer) that we will not discuss anything in presence of the CEO. If we do, the information will go to the ruling party and the state government within two minutes, Roy said.
There is a perception among the common people of Bengal that the state CEO is partisan, Roy later told PTI.
When questioned about the matter, Aftab declined to comment.
Additional CEO Sanjay Basu, however, said that they are only doing their job.
We are doing our job and will not be making any comment on this. We have nothing to do with it because it a persons personal opinion, Basu said.
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