The decision was taken after sporadic incidents of violence and disruption marred the past phases in 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Bengal. The BJP too had complained to the EC in this regard on numerous occasions.
New Delhi: The Election Commission on Tuesday decided to post paramilitary and central forces at each and every booth in Bengal for the remaining phases of the Lok Sabha elections.
The decision was taken after sporadic incidents of violence and disruption marred the past phases of the election in Bengal. The BJP too had complained to the EC in this regard on numerous occasions.
According to the new guidelines, the state police were relegated only to the middle of the three-cordon set up at polling booths. The outer and the inner would be manned by central forces. This means that the state police force would be forced to play mere assistants to the central forces and would not come into direct contact with voters. Moreover, they will neither check the voter I-cards nor be in the vicinity while the voting is going on.
Also read: EC tightens noose around Trinamool goons: More central forces deputed, state police neutralised
Here are the 5 scariest developments in Bengal that must have necessitated the action of the Election Commission.
1. In an entire Muslim-dominated, Trinamool-ruled village in Raiganj, Hindus were not allowed to vote.
2. A voter was killed during the third phase of the Lok Sabha election in Murshidabad while the house of another was bombed during voting in Shantipur.
3. The body of a polling agent was found hanging at his residence mysteriously in Buniadpur.
4. While the car of CPI(M)'s Md Selim was attacked in Raiganj during the third phase of polling, the fourth phase saw Union minister and BJP MP Babul Supriyo's car vandalised near a polling station of Asansol.
5. The body of a BJP activist was found hanging from a tree during this election in Purulia.
6. In Birbhum, miscreants ran away with EVMs, not letting the polling process to start before 8:30 AM.
7. Across the state, wherever elections were held, the cadre and workers of the BJP, CPM and Congress were intimidated, heckled, manhandled and, in a few cases, killed.
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