Kolkata, Jan 13 West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President and Rajya Sabha MP, Samik Bhattacharya, on Tuesday, filed a public interest litigation at a division bench led by the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, Sujoy Paul, seeking the court's intervention for ensuring security at all polling booths for the Assembly elections in the state scheduled later this year.
"For the past many years, there had not been a single instance of absolutely peaceful voting in West Bengal. What happens within the polling booth every year is not unknown to the people of West Bengal. We have seen that intimidation of voters takes place on the polling day despite the presence of central armed police forces (CAPF) personnel. We have seen how web-cameras installed at the polling booths are deactivated. The CAPF personnel are not allowed within the polling rooms, where all such mischief happens. We have seen how the polling agents of the opposition parties have been heckled. So I have filed a public interest litigation seeking the court's intervention for ensuring absolute security for all the polling booths this time," Bhattacharya told media persons.
He also referred to the incident of how Meena Devi Purohit, the BJP candidate from Jorasanko Assembly constituency in Kolkata and the current Councillor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, was physically assaulted allegedly by the ruling Trinamool Congress on the polling day during the 2021 state Assembly polls.
Speaking on the occasion, the State BJP President also said that even during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal, the booth-level officers (BLOs) are being constantly intimidated by the Trinamool Congress activists, so they work on the behest of the ruling party.
"Despite such intimidation, the BLOs had been doing extremely good work. Trinamool Congress is just sniffing danger because of that, and hence there is a possibility that before the polls, more violence will be unleashed," Bhattacharya added.
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