A two member delegation of the CPI(M) consisting of General Secretary Sitaram Yechury and Central Secretariat Member Nilotpal Basu met the Chief Election Commissioner today to draw attention of the Commission to some serious concerns with regard to the forthcoming elections to the West Bengal legislative assembly.
The full text of the memorandum submitted to the Commission is being released herewith.
Dear Sir,
We are constrained to bring to your notice certain issues for urgent action. Some of them have already been flagged in our earlier communications.
We had earlier complained about the brazen attempts by the TMC leader and the Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee to undermine the constitutional authority of the ECI. We had also pointed out that what she was speaking in her election meetings was blatant intimidation of the opposition, as well as, instilling a fear psychosis among the voters. This is in clear violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). We are hereby appending three press clippings (Annexure I) in the English media on her statements in her election meeting in Bankura on March 30, 2016. We are of the firm opinion that unless there is some concrete response from the EC on such violations, the voters are also not going to be convinced about the EC’s commitment to hold `free and fair polls’ in West Bengal.
The question of action against Anubrata Mondal, the Birbhum District President of TMC, also falls in this category. And, we have already made out a detailed representation on him.
We have already pointed out in our last letter dated March 31, 2016 on the criticality of making adequate number of CRPF companies available for area-domination throughout the state (and not just poll-bound constituencies in districts), as well as, manning of all booths with such personnel. We are, once again, attaching this letter for your ready reference (Annexure – II).
We have also, in the same letter, referred to the very critical situation in the 235-Keshpur AC and the representations of the Left Front Committee of West Bengal dated March 28 and 30, 2016 as annexures. The situation has further deteriorated with the police playing a blatantly partisan role and trying to implicate the very same workers of the CPI(M) who have suffered these attacks.
Finally, we would like to remind you of our concern over the attempts made by the state government to suppress officers who are independent and were sincerely trying to implement the directions of the EC in its letter and spirit. If officers cannot be insulated from such unjustified action, the partisan approach of the state administration cannot be rectified. In this connection, in our first communication itself, we had pointed out the case of Smt. Nandini Chakraborty who was shunted out from her position of Commissioner presidency range and was responsible for seven districts covering 127 assembly constituencies. We have now given to understand that she might be reinstated in her old position. Along with this, we and the people were expecting certain definitive action to be initiated against the Commissioner of Kolkata Police Shri Rajeev Kumar. There is major evidence of his unseemly and partisan role. The absence of any positive action is being viewed as a setback in holding free and fair polls.
With regards,
Yours sincerely
Sd/-
(Sitaram Yechury) (Nilotpal Basu)
General Secretary Member, Central Secretariat