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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | EC in balancing act after bias hint by Meghdeep Bhattacharyya

EC in balancing act after bias hint by Meghdeep Bhattacharyya

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published Published on Jan 27, 2011   modified Modified on Jan 27, 2011
The Election Commission is set to do a balancing act by again sending an observer team to Bengal, this time to assess the situation in places where Left supporters have been the “victims”.

The move follows the CPM’s complaint that the previous team had visited only the areas suggested by the Opposition.

“We are ready to send another team to Bengal next week. This time, the team will visit sensitive zones where Left supporters are the alleged victims of political clashes,” election commissioner H.S. Brahma told The Telegraph today.

Brahma said the Left Front was likely to submit a “list” of such places to the commission by this weekend. “Once we get the list, we can send the team next week,” the election commissioner said.

An irked Trinamul Congress leadership, however, described the commission’s move as “cross-checking” of the list submitted by the party.

Although the commission is yet to decide on the composition of the team, Brahma said chances were strong that it could be the same as the previous one that toured the state last week. The previous team had five IPS officers and was led by Bihar’s chief electoral officer Sudhir Kumar Rakesh.

“We might constitute a new team or send the same team that went last week. They have already toured the state extensively and submitted a report on Saturday. They will be in a better position to make another assessment,” Brahma said.

Sources in Nirvachan Sadan, the commission headquarters in Delhi, said the decision to send another team was taken after prominent Left Front leaders met chief election commissioner S.Y. Quraishi in Delhi on January 21 and made such a request.

“An eight-member Left delegation, including CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury, CPM MP Basudeb Acharia, CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan, RSP Rajya Sabha MP Abani Roy and Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas, requested Quraishi that another team visit those places where Left supporters are on the backfoot,” a senior commission official said.

According to Yechury, when the delegation pointed out that Rakesh’s team had visited only those parts of the south Bengal districts that the Trinamul Congress had suggested, Quraishi “sought a list of places we would want them to visit and assured an unpartisan assessment”.

A commission official said the UPA government was not opposed to sending another team to the state.

CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta today said: “We welcome the commission’s gesture. This is what is expected from the impartial custodian of the world’s largest democracy. We should be able to hand over our list by this weekend,” Dasgupta said.

Trinamul leader Subrata Bakshi said the commission was “most welcome to keep sending such teams” but added that “the ground reality in Bengal is well-known across the country”. He said “the CPM’s reign of terror is the only real picture of the state”.

State Congress chief Manas Buniya said his party wanted the commission to ensure “at any cost” that illegal arms were seized. “Illegal arms must be seized at any cost, irrespective of the parties that possess them. The commission can send as many teams as it deems necessary,” Bhuniya said.

According to Left Front sources, the places likely to be mentioned in the list are East Midnapore’s Nandigram, Khejuri, Haldia and Tamluk; South 24-Parganas’ Mathurapur, Joynagar and Kultali; Purulia’s Arsa, Bandwan and Jhalda; and Burdwan’s Memari, Mangalkot, Katwa, Assansol and Durgapur. Howrah’s Uluberia and Hooghly’s Serampore are also likely to be included in the list.

The Telegraph, 28 January, 2011, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110128/jsp/bengal/story_13499064.jsp


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