Lashing out at the West Bengal State Election Commissioner S. R. Upadhaya for his contradictory statements, Left Front chairperson Biman Basu said here on Wednesday that the Election Commissioner was “spineless”.
“He is not working according to his constitutional powers. He contradicts himself. On polling day [April 18] he said polling was not ideal yet the next day he said that voting was largely peaceful. The West Bengal State Election Commission has no role in conducting elections, they are reduced to a mere appendix of the human body. The elections are being held on the dates decided by the State government,” Mr. Basu told media persons here.
Mr. Upadhaya should have resigned if he felt he was bound by legislations of the Election Commission of India, Mr. Basu said. “Perhaps he couldn’t interpret the legislations properly. The State Election Commission has enough powers. If he felt he was being tied down by the Election Commission of India, he should have resigned to prove that he’s not powerless,” Mr. Basu said.
Stating that polls to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation were suspended during the 10-year tenure of Congress leader Siddhartha Sankar Ray in 1972-78, he said the “widespread” violence on polling day, allegedly perpetrated by the ruling Trinamool Congress, was “unprecedented.”
Earlier, State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and State Bharatiya Janata Party president Rahul Sinha had come down heavily against the State poll panel, with Mr. Sinha demanding that the Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls be scrapped entirely.
SEC meets Governor
Earlier during the day, Mr. Upadhaya met Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi after he summoned by the Governor.
“The Governor wanted to know about the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. I briefed him about the poll preparations for the upcoming district civic body polls [to be held on Saturday]. He wanted to know about the sub inspector [Jagannath Mondal] who was shot at on the polling day and I told him I have asked for a report. The Governor knows that Central forces will not be deployed on Saturday,” Mr. Upadhaya told media persons.
Talking to media persons later, Mr. Upadhaya passed the buck about irregularities of the poll panel to presiding officers. He admitted that presiding officers had indeed received complaints of violence but it did not reflect in their reports. He added that he would speak to the presiding officers about this.
