The Bharatiya Janata Party has admitted that it has fielded thousands of independent candidates in West Bengal Panchayat elections to “evade” the “obstacles” of Trinamool Congress in filing nominations.
BJP West Bengal president Dilip Ghosh said that in thousands of seats, where the party alleged it could not file nominations because of resistance from Trinamool Congress workers, it would urge people to cast their votes in favour of their independent candidates.
Out of 44,000 seats, there have been around 10,800 independence candidates, a sharp rise of 100 percent from last time. Ghosh said it was the plan of the BJP to field independent candidates.
“Our candidates were beaten up and thousands of them are in hospitals. We're left with no other options but to field independent candidates. Many of those independent candidates are our candidates,” said Ghosh.
Instead of the three-phases elections declared earlier, the West Bengal Election Commission on Thursday announced a single-phase election on May 14. The commission announced the new dates after both BJP and CPI(M) moved the Calcutta High Court for the extension of the last date of filing nomination.
However, the opposition parties ridiculed the commission's fresh decision to hold elections in around 70,000 booths on a single day while the number of police strength in West Bengal is not more than 40,000.
“So most of the seats will be without policemen. Those unguarded booths will be guarded by the Trinamool Congress workers,” said Ghosh.
The CPI(M) has again approached the high court against this. Rabin Deb, a central committee member of the party, has urged the court to instruct the commission to give enough security to every booth. The case would be taken up on Monday.
Deb said, “If booths are not guarded properly, what is the point of holding election? If police could not give enough security, central police force should be brought in.”
Meanwhile, the left-backed employees union has moved the high court seeking protection during Panchayat election duty. That case would also be slated for arguments next week.