EC seeks 'ground level' report from West Bengal poll authorities after BJP plea

NEW DELHI: On a day the BJP urged the Election Commission to declare

West Bengal

a "super sensitive state" to ensure fair Lok Sabha polls, the poll panel on Wednesday sought a "ground level" report from the state chief electoral officer.


Sources in the poll panel said that the CEO has to file the report on the actual ground situation.

The BJP had also demanded that central forces be deployed at all polling stations in the state. "This happens in every state," a functionary explained.

Briefing the media after meeting EC officials, law minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "We have requested the Election Commission that the state of West Bengal should be declared as super-sensitive. And have also demanded that central forces should be deployed at all polling booths in the state."

He said the party also requested the poll panel to transfer those police officers whose electoral impartiality is questionable as well as the withdrawal of former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar from election duty.

The BJP is trying to make inroads into TMC's bastion state (West Bengal) which has 42 Lok Sabha seats. In 2014, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) won 34 seats, the Congress four, while the BJP and CPI(M) bagged two seats each in the state.

Slamming the BJP for moving the poll panel, chief minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee alleged the saffron party was trying to hide behind central forces as it can't win any seat in the state.