West Bengal municipal elections: Parties express lack of confidence in Election Commissioner AK Singh
Ahead of election at seven municipalities in the state, West Bengal State Election Commissioner AK Singh met representatives of all political parties on Monday at the commission office.
Political leaders other than the ruling TMC, expressed their lack of confidence on Singh, as far as conducting polls was concerned. TMC national general secretary Subrata Bakshi said, “We had put forwarded certain proposals so that the election is carried out smoothly and in a free and fair manner.”
Senior CPI(M) leader Rabin Deb said Singh was too inexperienced to oversee the poll process smoothly. “Given his experience we have our doubts whether he would be able to conduct the polls properly. We have demanded for new Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and all of those should be equipped with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trials (VVPATs),” said Deb.
He also alleged that the State Election Commission (SEC) was partial towards the state government. “On April 12, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will address a rally at Domkal in Murshidabad district which will go for polls. The SEC has decided to issue poll notification on April 17 to avoid disturbing the CM’s meeting because had it been done ahead of April 12, the meeting would have violated …read more