West Bengal Panchayat Polls: After HC rebuke, SEC seeks 822 companies of forces from Centre

After the Supreme Court upheld the Calcutta High Court’s decision to deploy Central forces during the panchayat polls in the state, the SEC had sought only 22 companies of Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) from the Union government.

Finding the number “grossly inadequate” to ensure free and fair panchayat elections, the Division Bench of Justice Sivagnanam and Justice Uday Kumar of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday observed that if it was “difficult for the State Election Commissioner to take orders, then he can step down” and ordered the SEC to make requisition for Central forces within 24 hours. The Bench also told the SEC that the number of companies sought should not be less than what was requisitioned in the 2013 panchayat elections, citing the increase in the number of districts from 17 in 2013 to 22 at present, and the rise in the number of electorates in the past 10 years.

Reacting to the development, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, before leaving for Patna to attend the Opposition parties’ meeting, said that she felt “that the state police are smarter than any other police force in the entire country”. “Let them deploy as many Central forces as possible. But their strength will not be more than the number of voters. At the end of the day, the common people will vote. The people will have the final word and we will win,” the TMC supremo said.

The main Opposition party, the BJP, meanwhile, expressed apprehension about whether Central forces would be properly utilised by the State Election Commission during the voting. Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Suvendu Adhikari said the requisition of such a number of Central forces was only a “partial implementation” of the High Court’s order. “The SEC needs to make requisition for more Central forces because the number of polling booths and voters has gone up over the years, especially in comparison to the 2013 panchayat elections when Central forces were deployed in the state. Secondly, the law and order situation has deteriorated over the years. Therefore, there is a need to deploy more Central forces. This is nothing but a partial implementation of the High Court order,” Adhikari said. “Tomorrow, we will raise the issue in the High Court when my plea against the SEC for contempt of court will be heard,” the BJP MLA added.

CPI (M) leader Samik Lahiri echoed the BJP leader. “The High Court clearly said that the number of Central forces deployed should not be less than that of 2013 panchayat polls. The SEC has asked for 822 companies of central forces. But in 2013, the election was held in five phases. This time, it is being held in one phase. Therefore, more Central forces are required if every polling booth is to be covered by two Central force personnel,” said Lahiri.

Congress leader Kaustav Bagchi said the SEC made the requisition only under pressure from the High Court. “There is no honest intention of the SEC to ask for Central forces. If they really wanted to hold free and fair elections, then they would not have entered into a legal battle. Besides, the SEC needs to clarify on what basis they came up with such a number and how the force would be deployed for the election,” Bagchi added.

The TMC, on the other hand, slammed the Opposition for making “too many demands” before the court. “One cannot satisfy the Opposition. Their demand knows no bounds. The SEC has abided by the Calcutta High Court’s order. Yet, the Opposition is not happy. On behalf of TMC, we can say that we are not bothered about Central forces or any other force coming to the state. We are confident of our party’s victory,” said TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh.

On June 13, the High Court had directed the SEC to requisition Central forces for deployment in the districts it noted as sensitive, and to assess the situation and deploy accordingly in other districts. Expressing unhappiness over the delay in complying with the previous order, the High Court on June 15 directed the deployment of Central forces in all districts. The SEC and the West Bengal government then moved the Supreme Court against the High Court’s orders. The Supreme Court dismissed their petitions, saying “conduct of elections cannot be a licence to violence”.