Kolkata: West Bengal Governor KN Tripathi on Wednesday held talks with SEC S R Upadhyay and asked him to ensure peaceful polls to the 91 municipalities in the state on Saturday, after opposition parties accused the commission of "failing" to hold KMC elections freely and peacefully.
"I briefed him about the force deployment plan and other steps we are going to take for holding the ensuing civic polls peacefully," Upadhaya told reporters after emerging from his meeting with the Governor at the Raj Bhavan here.
"Even as the campaign for the polls to 91 civic bodies in the state would end tomorrow afternoon, we have already drawn up the force deployment strategy in consultation with the state's Home Secretary Basudeb Banerjee and top officials of the state police," the State Election Commissioner said.
Asked if he discussed with the Governor about the need of deployment of central forces to conduct the polls peacefully, Upadhyay said, "the Governor knows about non-availability of central forces for the civic polls."
However, only three companies of central forces, which were available for the April 18 civic polls to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, would be available for the April 25 election, he said.
Of the three companies of the central forces, he said, two companies have been deployed in North-24 Parganas district and the remaining one company in Hooghly district for flag march in sensitive areas.
The SEC said that the Governor advised him to ensure that the election process including law and order situation was monitored effectively to instill confidence among people.
The SEC had earlier stressed on the requirement of at least 100 company force for civic polls to 91 municipalities in 18 districts.
"In the prevailing situation, with violences still taking place in some districts, we have no other alternatives but to conduct this election mainly with the forces available from the state police," the SEC said.
"So far a number of incidents of violence have been registered with the state police ahead of the municipal polls," Upadhyay said, adding, "in all cases, steps have either been taken by the police or the commission has cautioned the candidate concerned or the political party", he said.
Upadhyay earlier said that the commission will not allow any motorbike rally.
"Entire border of the state with the neighbouring countries will be sealed and all government or other guest houses will remain vacant till the election is over," he said.
The opposition CPI(M) and BJP had already demanded that the SEC initiate appropriate steps to avert recurrence of the violence and alleged "rigging" during KMC polls, in the ensuing civic polls.
They had also demanded repoll in those booths "where sealed EVMs were found not signed by the agents of opposition political parties during counting of votes."
