The Election Commission enforced its own “Diamond Harbour model” late on Friday night by cracking the whip on five police officers, including an IPS officer, from the seven Assembly seats that make up Trinamool No. 2 Abhishek Banerjee’s Lok Sabha constituency.
“Diamond Harbour is in the fourth stage of cancer in terms of electoral malpractices. That’s why, urgent surgery had to be performed to ensure free and fair elections there,” a senior poll panel official said.
The commission directed Bengal chief secretary Dushyant Nariala to suspend additional SP Sandip Garai, SDPO Sajal Mondal, the inspectors-in-charge of the Falta and Diamond Harbour police stations, and the officer-in-charge of Usthi police station and initiate departmental proceedings against them.
According to the poll panel, these officers were working in a manner partisan to Bengal’s ruling party.
The commission also asked the chief secretary to issue a warning to Ishani Pal, the Diamond Harbour SP, for her alleged failure to ensure her subordinates worked with fairness during the elections.
These steps suggest the commission considers the seven Assembly seats of Falta, Diamond Harbour, Satgachia, Bishnupur, Mahestala, Budge Budge and Metiabruz in the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency as the most trouble-prone, sources said.
Diamond Harbour, on Calcutta’s southern fringes, is the fief of Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek, who has been representing the Lok Sabha seat since 2014.
His vaunted development and governance model for the area — covering infrastructure, healthcare, welfare and political management — is often referred to as the “Diamond Harbour model”.
The commission has also directed the chief secretary to submit a report on Garai’s activities to his cadre-controlling authority, the Union home ministry — a first such directive this Bengal election.
A report of this sort can jeopardise the career of an all-India service officer, such as an IAS or IPS officer.
“The poll panel found that these officers were working to help a particular party. They were booking false cases against Opposition party workers, even against some of the Opposition candidates,” a poll panel official said.
“Most disturbingly, they recorded the proceedings whenever Opposition candidates or their agents visited the observers to lodge complaints, and handed the footage to the ruling party. The ruling party used such footage to malign the poll panel.”
Sources said the commission was bracing for tougher challenges during the second phase of the Bengal elections, scheduled for April 29.
“Since a large part of the polling will take place in urban areas, criminal interference and attempts at electoral malpractice can be much higher,” a source said.
“There will be some tactical changes from the first phase. The central forces will be more active outside the 100-metre radius. Eleven more police observers have been sent for this phase.”
Diamond Harbour had drawn the poll panel’s attention in 2024 when Abhishek won by a margin of 7.10 lakh votes, the highest in the
country.
“A detailed analysis of the results gives a clear indication towards some sort of engineering by the ruling party’s machinery,” an official said.
Some 15.39 lakh votes were polled across the seven Assembly seats of Diamond Harbour during the 2021 elections. Of these, Trinamool secured 8.68 lakh, which was 3.62 lakh more than the BJP’s tally.
“But during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Trinamool secured 10.48 lakh of the 15.31 lakh votes cast. Abhishek’s winning margin was 7.10 lakh,” a poll panel official said.
