‘Ensure genuine voters make it to WB booths’

Asked if the Congress would take up the issue with EC, Sharma said, ‘‘I am sure West Bengal Congress has taken note of the report in The Sunday Express and will take up the matter.’’

BJP general secretary and spokesman Arun Jaitley said ‘‘What’s mentioned in the report reaffirms the charge of institutional rigging by the ruling Left Front in West Bengal. It’s extremely important that preparation of electoral rolls should be done by the Election Commission themselves rather than leaving it to the state machinery. The EC must do polling booth management with Central forces manning each booth.’’

West Bengal Opposition leader and Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee stepped up her demand to make the report public. ‘‘If free and fair elections are possible in Jammu and Kashmir and Bihar, why not Bengal?’’ she asked, adding that her party intends to raise the issue in Parliament and at the NDA meeting tomorrow.

‘‘We have been demanding for quite some time that the Amanullah report be made public. Now thanks to The Sunday Express, we have some information on the report. In this age of Right to Information, we should not be denied our basic right to know,’’ she said.

Meanwhile, the Left parties have decided to meet the political fallout from the publication of Amanullah’s report by ignoring it altogether. CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said, ‘‘We do not take cognizance of the report.’’

He said the Special Observer’s report referred to the elections in 2004 and it was for the Election Commission to decide what it wanted to do with it. ‘‘The Election Commission should know what to do with the (Amanullah) report,’’ Karat said.

According to RSP leader Abani Roy, the Left had raised objections to Amanullah’s observations earlier and there was nothing more to be said. ‘‘Let the Election Commission go through the report and we’ll see how it reacts,’’ he said.