Kolkata, April 7 The Trinamool Congress approached the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday regarding the unnecessary police harassment faced by its local party leaders and workers in one of the crucial Assembly constituencies in West Bengal.
Derek O'Brien, a member of the Trinamool Congress' National Working Committee and a Rajya Sabha member, had written a letter to the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal, seeking protection for party leaders and workers against unnecessary police harassment at the Nandigram Assembly constituency in East Midnapore district, which is the constituency of the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) and veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader Suvendu Adhikari.
This time, LoP Adhikari is contesting from both Nandigram and Bhabanipur Assembly seats. In Bhabanipur, he is contesting against the incumbent Trinamool Congress legislator and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Incidentally, on Monday, LoP Adhikari wrote a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging that covert police officers were monitoring his campaign in Bhabanipur.
Within 24 hours of the complaint filed by the Leader of the Opposition, the Trinamool Congress approached the ECI with complaints of their party leaders and workers facing unnecessary police harassment in Nandigram.
In a letter to the West Bengal CEO, O'Brien targeted LoP Adhikari, claiming that due to his political influence in the Nandigram constituency, the police were unnecessarily harassing the local Trinamool Congress leaders and workers in the Assembly constituency by conducting unnecessary raids and searches at their residences.
According to O'Brien, such one-sided and biased police action in Nandigram was against the guidelines of the ECI to ensure free and fair elections and was a direct attempt to weaken the Trinamool Congress' organizational network in the Assembly constituency.
The Trinamool Rajya Sabha member had also expressed concerns that if such a one-sided approach by the police continued, there would be a high possibility of electoral malpractices, rigging, booth capturing, and intimidation of voters on the polling day in Nandigram.
Nandigram will go to the polls in the first phase on April 23. However, Bhabanipur will go to the polls in the second phase on April 29.