State election commissioner Rajiva Sinha on Tuesday held the Union government responsible for the panel's inability to deploy central forces at booths on the day of the panchayat polls.
Sinha had been criticised for not deploying central forces at polling stations on July 8, which was marked by widespread violence, malpractices and deaths.
CRPF director general Sujoy Lal Thaosen arrived in Bengal on Tueday to look into allegations that the forces were kept inactive during the elections.
“The high court had ordered that central forces be deployed at maximum possible number of booths.... I don’t think they had deployed forces in more than 10,000 booths,” said Sinha.
He also brushed aside allegations that details of the sensitive booths were not shared with central force authorities.
“There was no plan by the BSF to deploy central forces in sensitive booths. We informed them of the district-wise number of sensitive booths. We had asked them to contact the DMs and SPs to get to know about the details of sensitive booths and the scale of deployment. If they did not get the details of the booths, how did they deploy forces?” Sinha said.
Sources aware of the development said Sinha was perhaps hinting at the Centre’s failure to send the required number of forces ahead of the polls.
The poll panel chief also said that some political parties and common people were of the opinion that the presence of the central forces would bring down untoward incidents during the polls. “We have worked as directed by the high court… But I don’t think they (the Centre) could deploy forces according to the requirement,” Sinha said.
Sources in the CRPF said Thaosen had been asked by the Union home ministry to prepare a report on whether the central forces were actually not used properly by the commission to guard polling stations.
Incidents of poll day violence and deaths will also be a part of his report.
The coordinator of central forces, IG-BSF, alleged gross miscommunication on the part of the poll panel when it came to the deployment of their personnel. "The DG will investigate all these allegations. He is likely to meet the governor and also representatives from the state administration. He might also meet the poll panel chief," a CRPF source said.
