"BJP will present case of faulty...": Suvendu Adhikari on West Bengal Panchayat polls

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], July 10 : West Bengal Leader of Opposition (LoP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari announced on Monday that his party would present a case regarding "faulty voting practices during the Panchayat polls" in the state before the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday.

Suvendu Adhikari said, "The BJP will present their case regarding faulty voting practices during the Panchayat polls before the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday so that repolls are conducted in those places in a fair manner under the supervision of central forces."

"Tomorrow, our lawyers will present these points in the High Court so that repolls are conducted in those places under the supervision of central forces like today," he said.

Adhikari also demanded the State Election Commission to pay compensation to the victims who had been killed.

"SEC had taken out voters from polling booths and killed them, they need to pay compensation to them," he alleged.

Adhikari mentioned that a four-member delegation from the BJP had presented their demands to the State Election Commission. While the officials, allegedly backed by the Trinamool Congress (TMC), verbally agreed to their demands but no practical actions were taken.

"A four-member men delegation presented demands to the State Election Commission. All these were rejected by the TMC (Trinamool Congress) backed SEC, though verbally they agreed with us," Adhikari said addressing a press conference claiming that more than 50 percent of the booths were looted, some partially while some completely.

"Out of 61,000 booths 44,000 voting compartment, more than 50 percent of these were looted some partially, some hundred per cent," he said.

He further highlighted that the Calcutta High Court had previously directed the State Election Commission to ensure the presence of CCTV cameras and centralized monitoring of footage with police assistance in all polling booths. However, Adhikari alleged that these directives were not followed, despite the BJP providing a comprehensive list of approximately 6,000 booths where incidents of looting had occurred.

"The High Court had directed that CCTV and CCTV memory be ensured. If not then videography should be done at least. These recordings should be centrally monitored with police assistance. The State Election Commission had responded saying that CCTV have been installed in 95 per cent of the booths and in 5 per cent of them, videography will be done. However, when the BJP wanted scrutiny of these footages it said that analysing all of these would take time and asked them to provide a list of the places where such incidents of violence had taken place," the West Bengal LoP said.

Adhikari noted that the BJP had sent a list of around 6,000 booths to the State Election Commission, but none of these booths were mentioned among the 696 booths where repolling was scheduled.

"Till yesterday afternoon, we had sent a list of around 6000 booths with numbers, blocks, assembly, and districts. Sorry, to say, among all these 696 booths where repolling is being done, none of our 6000 booths finds mention in this," he added.

"When voting started at 7 am, it has been found out that the BJP candidate or election agent or polling agent signed but during the time of sealing their signatures were not there. This proves that during within one to one-and-a-half hours of polling the BJP person may have been beaten and kicked out of the place. There are around 2500-3000 cases like this," the senior BJP leader said.

"In places where Mamata's goons could not get them out police, like the concerning police station OC or IC got them out. If they failed the BDO got them out," he said.

Adhikari, meanwhile thanked voters who poured water on ballot boxes or threw those in water when they were tampered with. "When looting was done, after the loot, residentials poured water into the voted ballot boxes. I thank them. Hence, the poll officials were bound to conduct repolls," he said.

Moreover, given the huge consignment of arms and ammunition involved in the arson during polling day, Adhikari demanded that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate these cases.

"The violence has been funded, the CBI should investigate these cases. A total of 21 died so far," he demanded.

Adhikari also demanded the CCTV or videography footage to be examined by the central forensic agency for examination. Repolling should be done in places where no signatures of the BJP candidates or election agents or polling agents were found on the basis of documents and reports of the presiding officer.

"The looters being outsiders have left many evidence. We will present these in the High Court," he said.

Moreover, Adhikari also demanded that the ballot boxes be opened at the strongroom in the presence of the opposition candidates. "When repoll is done, boxes should be opened at strongroom. During that time, the candidate of those places should be present at that time," he said.

The West Bengal State Election Commission on Monday conducted re-polling at 696 polling booths. No fresh cases of violence were reported. This came after the violence-marred Panchayat polls on Saturday.