Not me, Election Commission to blame for clashes: Chief Minister

KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee refused to take responsibility for the violence ripping through Bengal during the elections and instead blamed it on the Election Commission, under which the state administration has been placed.
Mamata on Wednesday told a private channel that she was not allowed to run the government now, ever since the poll notification (for Bengal polls) was announced on March 4.Dubbing it an EC game plan, she said: "They didn't allow me to function. How can I be held responsible for the law and order? When I was running the government, there wasn't a single poll death. Now 10-12 people have died."
The chief minister's grudge against the EC didn't rest there. "They have transferred 67 of my (police) officers. The Kolkata Police commissioner was transferred. They didn't even consult me before. Technically, I was elected on May 20, 2011 on a five-year mandate. My mandate isn't over yet. It will end on May 19, 2016. Since March, you (read EC) have been taking all actions unilaterally," she said. "Law and order is a state subject. I will not delve deep in it. I will only say I have not been allowed to function. So if you ask me on it, I will say sorry, I am not responsible for law and order now. With people's blessings if I take oath again, I will work again."
Mamata cited her reason for her simmering anger against a constitutional body: "I respect constitutional bodies. Even if the judiciary gives a verdict, we have the right to appeal against it. Where do I go now? I go to the people. For example, the clamping down of Section 144 of CrPC. What are the criteria to impose it? For years, we have seen Section 144 clamped on 100 metres of polling premises. Now, the same restriction is being imposed on entire districts. Why? Again in north Bengal, you (read EC) never felt the need. You imposed it selectively in places were the Trinamool is strong. Why was it imposed on North 24-Parganas, Howrah, South 24-Parganas and Kolkata, I may ask?"
As for the election implication of the CPM-Congress alliance, Mamata brushed it aside. "See, I myself had an alliance with the Congress in 1999, 2001, 2004 and 2006. I didn't win. The Bihar model was different, and unique. In it, a ruling party had joined ranks with an opposition party. What happened here? Two parties, after being reduced to signboards, have joined hands for their survival. I do not read much into it," she said. Mamata, however, pointed out that the 2016 Bengal elections reached a new low when it came to the language used and hate campaigns.