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Leader of Opposition in Bengal Suvendu Adhikari urges CEC to remove 'biased' cops from poll duty

KOLKATA: The Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday urged the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar to remove biased police officers from poll duty during the forthcoming assembly elections likely to be held in May next year in the state. Suvendu, who became an MLA on a BJP ticket after defeating the Chief Minister as well as Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram assembly seat in East Midnapore district in 2021, has written a letter to the CEC bringing serious charges against four police officers, raising questions on their 'biased' role. According to his complaint, in a convention of a police association held at Digha in the district recently, several participants expressed a desire to see Mamata again as the chief minister for the fourth term in Bengal. Violating service rules, these police officers have become biased showing their allegiance to Mamata, said Suvendu. These officers should not be deputed on poll duty when the model code of conduct (MCC) comes into force before the assembly polls in the state, the LoP told reporters. I have sent a letter to the CEC seeking removal of the biased police personnel from poll duty, Suvendu said. Asserting that the men in uniform cannot make such political statements, the BJP leader alleged that the police under Mamata Banerjee have ruined the last vestiges of democracy in the state. He claimed that the majority of police personnel are seeking the ouster of the Trinamool Congress government. SIR row: ECI to appoint observers to keep watch on section of BLOs in West Bengal after alleged negligence Regarding the issue of enlistment of data entry operators for election-related work, he alleged that the state government-owned Webel Technology Limited has been entrusted to appoint personnel who will be taken from the TMC's political consultancy firm I-PAC. The data entry operators should ideally be permanent employees of the West Bengal government, he said. The West Bengal CEO recently directed district election officers not to engage contractual data-entry operators and Bangla Sahayata Kendra staff for SIR or other poll-related work. Opposing the move, the chief minister wrote a letter to the CEC on Monday stating, When district offices already have a substantial number of competent professionals performing such functions, what necessitates the CEOs office to outsource the same work through an external agency for a full year? Traditionally, field offices have always hired their own contractual data entry personnel as per requirement. If there is an urgent need, DEOs are fully empowered to undertake such hiring themselves. Is this exercise being undertaken at the behest of a political party to serve vested interests? she questioned.