The opposition Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Tripura on Friday demanded that the Election Commission declare as “hypersensitive” all 221 booths in the four Assembly segments where polls are scheduled to be held on June 23 and enforce proper security measures accordingly.
In a letter to Chief Electoral Officer Kiran Dinkarrao Gitte, CPIM state secretary Jitendra Chaudhury demanded three-layer security measures by central paramilitary forces in each booth. “Considering the recent spurt of violence sponsored by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), both inside and outside the poll-bound areas, as narrated in my letter to you yesterday, I strongly demand this,” he said.
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The Left leader also demanded that central security forces be deployed in all booth areas for area domination and confidence building among voters three days prior to poll day.Best of Express Premium
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“All the polling booths must be under the scanner of webcasting and the cameras inside and outside the booths must be kept under close watch against any disruption by mischievous elements,” Chaudhury said in his letter.
His demands come amidst similar apprehensions from different opposition parties about purported political violence, allegedly perpetrated at the behest of the BJP cadre.
Earlier on May 30, Gitte had assured that concerned district magistrates and police superintendents would review the security situation in the areas that would go to bypolls, assess vulnerability and categorise 221 polling booths going to polls as normal, critical, vulnerable etc.
“Adequate security personnel would be deployed, CCTV coverage would be ensured in all polling stations and webcasting would be done at 50 per cent of the polling stations,” the CEO had said, adding that joint task forces and proper use of technology would ensure free and fair elections.
However, his assurances were taken with a pinch of salt as Congress leader Ashish Kumar Saha, CPIM leader Ratan Das and Trinamool Congress leader Tapas Kumar Roy said they were apprehensive of political violence and urged the Election Commission to ensure a free and fair by-election.
The allegations were later rubbished by BJP, which said opposition parties were making baseless allegations to regain their “lost political relevance”.
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