Election Commission Visits West Bengal, Political Parties Demand Changes to Polling Phases

The Election Commission team is on a visit to West Bengal. On the first day of its three-day visit on Monday, the commission held talks with political parties, including the number of phases of polling. Opposition parties in the state demanded that the commission hold elections in three or fewer phases. On Monday, the party delegation met Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Deputy Election Commissioners SS Sandhu and Vivek Joshi in Kolkata. The BJP delegation demanded that the assembly elections be held in a single phase or at most in two phases, and not seven to eight. The party also asked the commission to ensure violence-free elections in the state. The BJP also submitted a 16-point charter to the EC, stressing security concerns among other things. BJP leader Jagannath Chattopadhyay said that we demanded one, two or three-phase elections. Chattopadhyay was part of a three-member party delegation that met EC officials. However, Chattopadhyay expressed concern over the deployment of 400 companies of central forces and said that the state police was not criticising the role of the central forces in the violence.