New Delhi: A BJP delegation on Friday approached the Election Commission (EC) demanding re-polling in 297 booths in West Bengal’s Cooch Behar Lok Sabha constituency that voted on Thursday in the first phase of polling. The BJP delegation also urged the poll body to ensure deployment of central forces in all polling booths for free and fair elections.
The delegation, comprising Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and its media head Anil Baluni, submitted to the EC a memorandum, accusing the Trinamool Congress (TMC) of rigging during the first phase of polling.
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TMC goons prevented people from voting in West Bengal. We demanded re-polling and stationing of two CAPF soldiers in every booth in the state,” Naqvi told reporters. Hitting out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, he said: “There were instances of rigging and booth capture… ‘goondagardi’ (hooliganism) was done by TMC’s ‘goondas’ during the first phase of polling.”
Meanwhile, intensifying their protest against stray incidents of violence during and after elections in Cooch Behar, BJP leaders held a sit-in demonstration inside the chamber of West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer, demanding deployment of central forces in all booths in the remaining phases of the Lok Sabha polls.
State BJP leaders initially commenced their protest demonstration in front of the CEO’s office and later, they met CEO Aariz Aftab and squatted on the floor inside his chamber. “You defer the elections, if you do not have adequate forces. Central forces must be deployed in all the booths,” party leader Mukul Roy told Aftab during the protest.
