3 min readKolkataMay 15, 2014 02:07 AM IST
First published on: May 15, 2014 at 02:07 AM IST
Seeking fresh polls immediately in 3,200 booths, Left parties held a rally against Trinamool Congress (TMC) for alleged rigging of Lok Sabha elections in TMC-ruled West Bengal.
CPM Leaders Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury and Brinda Karat, CPI leaders A B Bardhan, Sudhakar Reddy and D Raja, AIFB leader Debabrata Biswas and leaders of RSP participated in the rally at Jantar Mantar here.
“In the 3rd, 4th and 5th phases of elections, around 3,200 polling booths were rigged by TMC workers. Voters were threatened, assaulted and shot at by goons of TMC, to prevent them from casting their votes. Since TMC came to power, malpractice is repeatedly being adopted in every poll by TMC,” Prakash Karat said addressing the rally.
Karat said Left parties want fresh polling immediately in around 3,200 booths.
Sitaram Yechury said, “We have given a list of rigged polling booths to EC, which should announce a repoll. If EC doesn’t pay heed to our demand, we are ready for a political fight. Left parties ran the government for 32 years in West Bengal, but we never tried to kill democratic system”.
Brinda Karat said media showed how TMC goons cast fake votes, but EC’s special observer did not get to see anything wrong there.
Bardhan and Raja slammed EC for not taking any action against TMC.
Prakash Karat said, “We informed EC about likely rigging two months back, but it did nothing in this regard. Rigging was done from 3rd phase to 5th phase of elections in West Bengal. Besides, hijacking polling booths, voters were assaulted, shot at as we got to see such incident in Basirhat parliamentary constituency on May 12 in which four persons were critically injured while 17 others were injured,” .
He said media reported the matter and Opposition parties gave evidence of malpractice, but EC has not decided to conduct fresh poll. He alleged the ruling party used police and administration to ‘kill’ the democratic system in West Bengal.
CPI leaders A B Bardhan and D Raja also slammed EC for not taking any action against TMC and demanded immediate re-poll in affected polling booths.
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