West Bengal assembly election: EC to hold press conference at 1 PM, major announcements expected

Kolkata: The full bench of the Election Commission of India (ECI), which has arrived in West Bengal to review preparations for the upcoming assembly election in the state, will hold a press conference on Friday during which major announcements are likely to be made.

According to reports, the poll panel will hold its press conference around 1 PM. Prior to that, the full bench of the Election Commission will hold talks with state’s   Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay, Home Secretary HK Dwivedi, DGP Virendra and other senior officials.

The poll panel has directed the state police to execute all pending non-bailable warrants (NBWs) within this month and to contain violence before the announcement of assembly poll dates. An official of the Chief Electoral Officers office was quoted as saying by the news agency PTI. Eyeing to conduct the coming assembly polls in West Bengal peacefully, the ECI is also mulling the option of deploying around 25 per cent more security personnel than that used in holding the 2019 Lok Sabha election, he said.

The full bench of the ECI, which is currently in the state to review preparedness for the assembly polls due in April-May, held a meeting with the nodal officer of the state police, ADG (Law and Order) Gyanwant Singh, and expressed discontent with the execution of NBWs as well as the law and order situation.

"The full bench said that it is not at all satisfied with the law and order situation in the state as well as the execution of the NBWs. The ECI asked Singh to follow its directives effectively," he said.

Singh informed Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, Election Commissioners Sushil Chandra and Rajeev Kumar that the COVID-19 pandemic and the devastation caused by cyclone Amphan created hindrances in the proper execution of NBWs. However, the police executed nearly 12,000 of the pending 50,000 NBWs in the last four days.

At the meeting, the IPS officer presented a list of criminals who can create trouble even from inside correctional homes. The full bench of the ECI is also thinking of deploying personnel of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) on a massive scale, the officials said.

"The number of polling booths has jumped from 77,247 to 1,01,733. There are indications that the Commission is thinking to deploy approximately 25 per cent more security personnel compared to what was used in the last Lok Sabha elections. This is also to ensure peaceful polling," he said.

The ECI held detailed discussions with senior officials of paramilitary forces such as the BSF and the CRPF on the availability of personnel in the state during the polls. The ECI full bench also met district magistrates and superintendents of police and asked them to identify those who had created disturbances during the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 and put them behind the bars, he said.

The Commission also directed them to keep air ambulances and helicopters ready in remote areas to address emergency cases during the pandemic. Meanwhile, the BJP unit has written a letter to the Election Commission of India (ECI), urging that the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) must be deployed at least 15 days before polling day.

The party also said that live webcasting should be made available inside critical polling stations and its feed should be made available to political parties. On the current law and order situation in the state, the BJP West Bengal Unit stated, "State-sponsored, legitimised fear, anarchy and lawlessness by the state police at the behest and bidding of AITC negates the very role of police for providing safety and security to its people.”

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