Munmun Kaur –
Published On: December 03, 2021 at 19:50 IST
A petition was filed in Supreme Court by BJP on Thursday seeking the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) personnel to be deployed at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation election that are scheduled for December 19.
West Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar said that a “free, fair and peaceful” election was not possible under the state police. “We had made a deputation to Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and told him that a free, fair and peaceful election in West Bengal is not possible with the state police force. We had appealed to the Governor to look into our demand for deployment of the Central Armed Police Force for the KMC election. Now, we have decided to move the Supreme Court to press the same demand. We have already filed a petition before the apex court, seeking its directives to West Bengal State Election Commission (WBSEC) to deploy central force,”
In her video message, she also pointed at the experiences of the 2018 panchayat elections and previous civic polls and the possibility of violence if the election were to take place under the supervision of state police.
The TMC, on the other hand, ridiculed the BJP for demanding CAPF deployment for the civic poll. “The governor is acting beyond his jurisdiction. This is not desired. He is advocating for the BJP. He must understand that the Centre had deployed a large number of CAPF personnel for state Assembly polls earlier this year but the result showed the TMC winning 213 seats in the state,” said TMC State General Secretary Kunal Ghosh.
In a letter to the Governor, BJP also referred to the precedent in 2013 when SEC had approached the Supreme Court for deployment of central forces in Municipal polls whereas the West Bengal was in favor of holding polls under the supervision of state police.