West Bengal panchayat poll violence: Governor meets home minister Amit Shah

NEW DELHI: West Bengal governor C V Ananda Bose met home minister Amit Shah here on Monday against the backdrop of violence witnessed during the panchayat polls in the state.

Bose is learnt to have apprised Shah about the factors that may have triggered the violent clashes between workers of rival parties as the electorate in West Bengal voted on Saturday to choose their local body representatives.

Sources said the governor briefed the home minister on all related matters including the utilisation and deployment of Central para-military forces during the polling, and how it may have impacted the law and order situation, leading to around one-and-a-half dozen deaths.

Emerging from the MHA office at North Block, Bose chose to be cryptic when asked about what transpired in his meeting with Shah.

Borrowing a line from P B Shelley’s poem ‘Ode To The West Wind’, Bose told reporters: “The darkest hour is just before dawn. There will be light at the end of the tunnel. The only message I could get today is (that) if winter comes, can spring be far behind. Good will happen in the days to come”.

Bose had visited various places in West Bengal, particularly in the North 24 Parganas district, and took stock of the situation on Saturday during the polling.

Meanwhile, repolling was held across 696 polling booths across 19 districts on Monday.

Over 19 persons are said to have died in the political violence that rocked West Bengal on polling day. The clashes occurred despite the deployment of thousands of Central forces personnel in the state as per the order of the Calcutta High Court, later upheld by the Supreme Court.

The West Bengal government had objected to deployment of Central forces right from the start, claiming that the state police was competent to handle security for the panchayat polls in the state. In the aftermath of violence during the panchayat elections on Saturday, the BSF and the State Election Commission (SEC) have sought to blame each other.

While BSF is said to have written to the SEC saying that they were not adequately informed for proper deployment, the SEC chief purportedly claimed that Central forces that reached the state were not as per the numbers requisitioned and also landed late in the many sensitive areas.

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