On the 6th of April, Mamata Bannerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, wrote a letter to the Election Commission (EC) saying the removal of four top officials was done without consulting the State Government and was illegal.
The four officials, two Police Commissioners of Kolkata and Bidhannagar and two Superintendents of Police of the Birbhum and Diamond Harbour districts, were transferred just before the elections were due to begin.
In her letter to the Election Commission, the West Bengal Chief Minister said these transfers were a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ploy and the EC should look into who was responsible and review the order.
While responding to Bannerjee’s claims, the EC wrote back by saying, “The Election Commission acted according to the law and that it was within its rights to transfer the four IPS officers on Friday. The transfers were ordered after evaluating complaints by the Opposition and the ECI’s own assessment.”
Chandan Bhushan Kumar, the Deputy Election Commissioner (DEC,) also said Bannerjee’s statements were factually incorrect and that these cops were not supposed to be involved in election duty of any kind. Furthermore, he also said the EC shouldn’t be blamed for taking sides when the decision to transfer the cops was purely an arbitrary one.
According to the poll body, the EC had conducted several reviews from the 31st of January to the 1st of February in several states across India. Only after having multiple discussions with the police and state officials, the poll body finalised the decision of transferring the police constables in various places.
Special Expenditure Observers were appointed not only for West Bengal, but for Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Tripura and Telangana. “Thus, it is not as if any particular state was being singled out. Special Expenditure Observers have also been appointed for Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra,” said the EC.
According to Section 28A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, “Any police officer temporarily designated by any state government for the conduct of the election is deemed to be on deputation to EC and is subject to control, superintendence and discipline of EC.”
Using this Act in its response to Bannerjee’s letter, the Commission said, the Chief Minister’s claims were completely wrong. With the elections coming up in just a few days, Mamata Banerjee seems to be on a warpath.
The Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal are going to be held in all the 7 phases, from the 11th of April to the 19th of May.
The major parties contesting the West Bengal Lok Sabha elections are the Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress (TMC,) the BJP and the Indian National Congress (INC.)
The results of the Lok Sabha elections are going to be declared on the 23rd of May.
Stay tuned for more updates.
