The Election Commission has announced a previously unscheduled visit to West Bengal for Thursday, ahead of the second phase of voting, in the wake of several complaints about violence and intimidation of voters by the ruling Trinamool Congress in the two-leg first phase. All three election commissioners, CEC Nasim Zaidi along with commissioners A K Joti and O P Rawat, will be in the state Thursday to review poll preparedness and meet district and police officials, the state chief electoral officer and leaders of various political parties, the Election Commission said in a statement. The second phase of voting to 56 seats is Sunday in Birbhum and six North Bengal districts — Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Uttar and Dakshin Dinajpur and Malda. [related-post] Sources said the visit was scheduled in the wake of separate complaints from all opposition parties about phases 1a and 1b. Delegations complained to the full commission this week alleging intimidation of voters by the ruling party supporters. “There have been widespread intimidation of voters, violence, obstructing voters from going to the polling booths, mounting attacks on opposition polling agents. Even the Leader of the Opposition of the current assembly and secretary of the CPM West Bengal state committee, Surjya Kanta Mishra, was heckled in his assembly constituency Narayangarh,” CPM leader Nilotpal Basu had said in a memorandum submitted to EC. The decision to visit the state comes a day after the poll panel removed controversial Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar based on complaints that he was biased towards the state government. Kumar’s replacement, Soumen Mitra, took over on Wednesday. “It's a difficult situation. We are going to conduct the elections in the city peacefully,” he said. Also Wednesday, PTI quoted EC officials as saying they would issue a showcause notice to Anubrata Mandal, the Birbhum district president of the Trinamool Congress. He was censured Tuesday for alleged comments against a woman BJP candidate.
