Declare West Bengal ‘Super Sensitive’, BJP Tells Election Commission
The BJP also demanded that central forces be deployed at all polling stations in West Bengal.
The Bharatiya Janata Party urged the Election Commission to declare West Bengal as a “super sensitive state” to ensure fair Lok Sabha polls there. It also demanded that central forces be deployed at all polling stations in the state.
A BJP delegation, including Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad, Nirmala Sitharaman, JP Nadda and party’s general secretaries Bhupender Yadav and Kailash Vijayvargiya, met top officials of the poll body and apprised them of their demands.
Prasad said the party has 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 Trinamool Congress bastion state (West Bengal) which has 42 Lok Sabha seats. In 2014, the TMC won 34 seats, the Congress four, while the BJP and CPI(M) bagged two seats each from the state.
The state assumes importance for the saffron party as it aims to win a sizeable number of seats there.
The BJP delegation also alleged that Congress chief Rahul Gandhi broke the model code of conduct and complained to the poll panel regarding the same.
“The party has requested the Election Commission to take action against Rahul Gandhi for levelling unverified allegations against the prime minister yesterday in Ahmedabad, where the model code of conduct is already in effect,” Prasad said.