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Congress wants EC to declare 50 % Bengal booths as `sensitive`
Kolkata, Mar 08: Congress on Monday demanded that the Election Commission should declare 50 per cent of West Bengal`s 49,000 polling booths as `sensitive` and 7,000 out of the remaining 50 per cent as `super sensitive` to ensure free and fair polls in the state.
Kolkata, Mar 08: Congress on Monday demanded that the Election Commission should declare 50 per cent of West Bengal's 49,000 polling booths as 'sensitive' and 7,000 out of the remaining 50 per cent as 'super sensitive' to ensure free and fair polls in the state.
WBPCC general secretary Manas Bhuniya said the 7,000 booths where the ruling Left Front candidates won unopposed in the last panchayat poll should be declared 'super sensitive'.
He said the Congress would present its demands in writing to the EC as also state's Chief Electoral Officer Basudev Bandyopadhyay.
The party would also appeal for additional deployment of police forces in West Midnapore, Bankura, Purulia, Hooghly, Malda, Murshidabad and North Dinajpur districts to prevent 'terror' unleashed by the CPI (M), he said. Accusing the Coordination Committee of State Government Employees Union of 'manipulating' the poll machinery for the CPI (M), Bhuniya urged the CEO to be 'cautious' in preparing the list of polling personnel for the Lok Sabha election in the state.
"Polling personnel should be enlisted both from state and central government services irrespective of their political adherence."
On the possibility of Bollywood actress Mousumi Chatterjee contesting from a Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal, Bhuniya did not give a direct reply, pointing out that after joining the Congress recently, she had expressed her willingness to contest from any part of the country as desired by the party.
The candidature of Nafisa Ali against Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee from the prestigious Calcutta South constituency, would be finalised within a few days, he said. "WBPCC president Pranab Mukherjee will leave for Delhi on March 9 and we hope the list will be finalised by the Central Election Committee of the AICC between March 10 and 14," he added. Bureau Report
He said the Congress would present its demands in writing to the EC as also state's Chief Electoral Officer Basudev Bandyopadhyay.
The party would also appeal for additional deployment of police forces in West Midnapore, Bankura, Purulia, Hooghly, Malda, Murshidabad and North Dinajpur districts to prevent 'terror' unleashed by the CPI (M), he said. Accusing the Coordination Committee of State Government Employees Union of 'manipulating' the poll machinery for the CPI (M), Bhuniya urged the CEO to be 'cautious' in preparing the list of polling personnel for the Lok Sabha election in the state.
"Polling personnel should be enlisted both from state and central government services irrespective of their political adherence."
On the possibility of Bollywood actress Mousumi Chatterjee contesting from a Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal, Bhuniya did not give a direct reply, pointing out that after joining the Congress recently, she had expressed her willingness to contest from any part of the country as desired by the party.
The candidature of Nafisa Ali against Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee from the prestigious Calcutta South constituency, would be finalised within a few days, he said. "WBPCC president Pranab Mukherjee will leave for Delhi on March 9 and we hope the list will be finalised by the Central Election Committee of the AICC between March 10 and 14," he added. Bureau Report