Alleging that candidates of the Left Front are facing threats and intimidation ahead of polls to 12 civic bodies in West Bengal, Chairperson of the State Left Front Committee Biman Bose urged the administration on September 18 not to “turn the elections into a farce”. Elections to the 12 municipalities are to be held on Saturday and campaigning ends on Thursday.
Referring to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s visit to the Bardhaman district on Thursday, Mr. Bose said it was a violation of the model code of conduct. “What is the State Election Commission doing?” he asked and wondered why permission was granted for Ms. Banerjee’s event. The administration should function without bias, he said. A delegation of the Left Front submitted a memorandum to the State Election Commission on why booth-wise details of the rural polls results have not been compiled as yet by the election panel.
Mr. Bose alleged that there were large scale discrepancies in the number of votes the Left Front candidates secured and the number of votes officially declared in their favour. He said the delay in compilation is to cover up the malpractices during the counting of votes in the rural polls.
September 19, 2013