The Election Commission has hit the ground running after announcing the election dates for four states and one Union Territory, beginning on March 27 with the results due on May 2.
Bengal, in the eye of a storm, has elections due in eight phases which has the state’s chief minister Mamata Banerjee agitated. The direct corollary is that the Election Commission has felt Bengal is a sensitive state, prone to violence, and hence wants to take minimum chances with its preparations and execution in the Covid-19 times.
A day after it announced the dates, the Election Commission on Saturday removed the Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order), Jawed Shamim and brought in current DG Fire Services Jag Mohan in his place.
The shuffle has allegedly come after a BJP delegation, including MP Swapan Dasgupta and Arjun Siingh, met the Chief Electoral Officer Ariz Aftab and urged him to remove “biased” police officers from election duty.
Only this month, Mamata Banerjee-led government had made Shamim, who was special commissioner of police (II) of the Kolkata Range, the state ADG.
“The way the police administration is functioning in West Bengal, it is evident that fair polling is not possible here. We can name a few police officers who are posted in the city. If they continue in their posts, free and fair elections are not possible,” Dasgupta told reporters after meeting the CEO.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced that the Assembly elections for West Bengal will be held in eight phases across 1,01,916 polling stations from March 27 to April 29. The counting of votes will take place on May 2.
Below is the date-wise numbers of seats which would vote in Bengal assembly polls.
March 27: 20 seats, 5 districts
April 1: 30 seats, 4 districts
April 6: 31 seats, 3 districts
April 10: 44 seats, 5 districts
April 17: 45 seats, 6 districts
April 22: 43 seats, 4 districts
April 26: 36 seats, 5 districts
April 29: 35 seats, 4 districts
Besides announcing the polling dates, the ECI has also announced that it has appointed two special poll observers- Vivek Dubey and MK Das as well.
