Security beefed up at Bengal CEO office after sit-in

Kolkata, April 13 (IANS) Security was stepped up at the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal, here on Saturday, a day after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Mukul Roy led a sit-in at his chamber.

An Election Commission (EC) official without referring to the sit-in confirmed the increased security at the main gate of the building. It had been done to "prevent any disruption", Additional Chief Electoral Officer Sanjay Basu said.

A BJP delegation, led by Roy on Friday staged a sit-in inside the CEO chamber against alleged "rigging" of polling in the Cooch Behar Lok Sabha seat by the ruling Trinamool Congress. They demanded deployment of central forces in all booths for the remaining phases of the polls.

Asked about BJP state president Dilip Ghosh's flaunting of weapons at Ram Navami celebrations, Basu said, "they have asked for a factual report from the District Electoral Officer".

"Almost all our ancestors had taken up weapons. It has been a tradition. We will carry forward the tradition. Elections, various governments and the EC will come and go but Bharat and Ram will be there forever," Ghosh had said.

On the number of vehicles allowed during election campaigns, the Additional CEO said specific complaint would be dealt with separately, but as per the EC rules there can be ten vehicles in a fleet, and there 100 metre gap between two fleets.

The complaints portal recorded more than 500 complaints during the voting in the first phase.

EC's National Grievance Services (NGS) portal received five complaints in Alipurduar and three complaints in Cooch Behar. All were disposed within the stipulated time, Basu said.

Also, the 'c-Vigil' portal received 25 complaints from Alipurduar and 43 from Cooch Behar constituencies. "There were 565 complaints from Cooch Behar and 66 from Alipurduar constituencies recorded by portal. All of them have been disposed off," he said.