The state election commission will cite violent attacks at Presidency University and CPI(M) offices in retaliation to assault on finance minister Amit Mitra in Delhi, to bolster its case in the court for the deployment of central para military forces for panchayat polls.
Sources at the Writers’ Buildings said that the state government apprehended that now its persistent refusal to conduct the polls with the help of state armed police was going to be questioned by the court.
Fed up with the state government’s non-cooperation, the commission filed a case in the Calcutta High Court challenging its authority to unilaterally announce the dates of rural polls on April 26 and April 30.
In the next hearing of the case, the lawyer of the commission Samaraditya Pal and his associates are likely to point out to the judge the volatile situation prevailing in the state. “Since Tuesday when Amit Mitra was assaulted in Delhi, hundreds of attacks have taken place across the state on CPI(M) offices. We shudder to imagine what would happen in the runup to and during the polls.
That is the reason why we are insisting on deployment of central para military forces from the date of filing of nominations. This will help stop pre-poll violence,” a commission official said on condition of anonymity.
The commission will also submit CDs of virulent speeches made by some ruling party leaders against their political opponents. “MP Suvendu Adhikari and food minister Jyotipriya Mullick gave hate speeches against CPI(M). We apprehend that these speeches may incite violence during the election,” he added.
The commission will also use the police’s failure to stop the killing of a police officer during a college union election in Garden Reach as a weapon in the court against the state government.