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WB: Bhawanipur Bypoll Takes Place Amid High Security, Opposition Allege Unfair Treatment

The Bhawanipur bye-election was necessitated after CM Mamata Banerjee suffered a humiliating defeat in Nandigram in the last assembly election.
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Kolkata: The bye-election for the Bhawanipur assembly segment where West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata banerjee is seeking voters’ mandate took place on Thursday amid unprecedented security arrangements. Along with Bhawanipur, bye-elections are also taking place at samshergunj and Jangipur assembly segments. 

In total, there are 979 booths where 6,96,682 voters will cast their ballots. The election commission has decided that the voting will continue under the supervision of the central forces. Tightening the security further in Bhawanipur, where the chief minister is the candidate, the Election Commission (EC) has put one micro observer in each booth, and all of them are central government employees.

The 287 booths in Bhawanipur have CCTVs connected directly to the EC control room in Kolkata. The unprecedented security arrangement was made after news reports emerged of unknown faces flooding Bhawanipur area.

Although the voting centres are adequately manned, the opposition, including the Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate Srijeeb Biswas complained to the EC about his campiagning trail being cut short in the area. In this bye-election, 58 appeals for spot campaigning were made to the police on behalf of the Left Front. But permission was obtained only in 27 cases. The police cited COVID-19 protocol for cancelling election rallies of the Left Front in most of the cases.

However, according to reports of the last election, when TMC leader Shovandeb Chattopadhya was the candidate, 93 appeals were made for spot campaigning to the police. In 89 cases, the reply was positive. The CPI(M) has cited these two statistics side by side to claim that there was an unofficial embargo on the Left’s campaigning put by the Trinamool Congress-led administration.

The Bhawanipur bye-election was necessitated after CM Mamata Banerjee suffered a humiliating defeat in Nandigram in the last assembly election. She had earlier left her home seat, Bhawanipur, to Shovandeb Chattopadhya who won the seat with a considerable margin, but Banerjee failed to get the pass mark in Nandigram. Giving credence to the rule of getting elected within six months of government formation, the West Bengal CM directed her party MLA  and minister Shovandeb Chattopadhya to resign. However, the COVID-19 wave was continuing and it put the state CM in a tense situation.

In an unprecedented manner, the  Chief Secretary sent a request to the Election Commission saying that if the Bhawanipur bye-election was not held, it might lead to consitutional crisis in the state. It was only on Wednesday that the Kolkata High Court, in its observation, said that Chief Secretary Harikishore Dwivedi was working like a cadre of the ruling party. The judges of the division bench of Kolkata High Court asked how the chief secretary knew beforehand that Mamata Banerjee was contesting from the Bhawanipur assembly segment. He was not a returning officer nor the spokesperson of any political party.

In Bhawanipur, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded Advocate Priyanka Tibrewal to keep its constituent coterie of linguistic minority voters intact. About 80 BJP leaders campaigned for the candidate for the last fortnight. The Left’s campaign was led by its politbureau member MD Salim and central committee member Dr Sujan Chakraborty with an aim to assimilate all the non-TMC, non-BJP votes under one roof.

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