Bengal panchayat polls: BSF alleges 'no information' on sensitive booths
The West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC) failed to provide details about the sensitive polling booths before the panchayat polls despite several requests from the Border Security Force (BSF), ANI reported, quoting a senior BSF official. The allegation was leveled after at least 20 people died and several others sustained injuries in violence during the elections across the state on Saturday, said reports.
BSF wrote several letters to SEC: Top official
BSF Deputy Inspector General (DIG), SS Guleria, said the central security force had written several letters to the Bengal poll body seeking information about the sensitive polling booths. However, the state election commission only informed about the number of such booths on June 7, avoiding the details about their locations. The deployment of BSF personnel was at the request of local administration, he added.
There were more sensitive booths than declared, says DIG
Guleria further accused the poll body of not adequately utilizing the security forces even as "59,000 troops of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and state armed police arrived from 25 states for the election duty." "The state declared only 4,834 sensitive booths on which only CAPFs are deployed, but actually, there were more sensitive polling booths," he continued.
No casualties where CAPFs, BSF were deployed: Guleria
The DIG also said that no casualties were reported where the CAPFs, BSF, and State Armed Forces troops were deployed. Separately, on Thursday, the BSF sought the Centre's help against the prospect of deploying two security personnel per booth in West Bengal, deeming it unsafe. Later, at least four central force personnel were stationed at a polling station with one or two booths.
Watch: Guleria's full statement
20 dead in poll-related violence
On Saturday, reports of multiple incidents involving bomb attacks, vandalization of ballot boxes, booth capturing, and assault on presiding officers came from several districts in Bengal. The BSF said the poll body set up 61,636 polling booths to conduct elections for 3,317 gram panchayats, 341 panchayat samities, and 20 zilla parishads in West Bengal on Saturday.
