End of campaign in WB: Opposition meets EC

A delegation of the Opposition parties on Thursday met the Election Commission (EC) and registered its strong opposition to its decision to end the campaigning early in West Bengal after violence erupted during BJP president Amit Shah's roadshow in Kolkata on Tuesday.

However, the delegation didn't receive any satisfactory answer from the electoral body, said Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who led the delegation.

"Without any quasi-judicial procedure, the Election Commission had cut short campaigning in West Bengal. They didn't decide who was behind the violence (at BJP president Amit Shah's roadshow in Kolkata). We and most of the non-NDA parties have alleged that BJP is behind the vandalisation of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar's statue and violence at the roadshow," Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said.

"If the Election Commission does this, then the result that comes out of it is that the person, who is the culprit, gets the benefit for his wrongdoing and the one, who is innocent, have to pay for this as they have to cut short their campaigning process by 24 hours. If evidence shows that BJP was behind all this then why non-NDA parties pay should for it? We have not received a satisfactory response from the Election Commission on this," he said.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh, who was also a part of the delegation, said, "TMC and other people should decide now whether they will go to court against this or not."

In an unprecedented action, the EC on Wednesday cut short the campaigning period in West Bengal by a day for the final phase of the Lok Sabha elections in view of the violence during Shah's roadshow on Tuesday.

Campaigning was originally scheduled to end at 5 pm on Friday for the nine constituencies that will go to polls on May 19.

Meanwhile, the delegation also complained about Raebareli Superintendent of Police Vineet Singh to the Election Commission.

"Elections were held on May 12 in Raebareli, but what happened on May 12 and May 14 there was a trailer, according to us, and shows what wrong things will happen on May 23," Singhvi said.

"We have informed that Superintendent of Police Vineet Singh should immediately be transferred from there as he is openly getting biased towards BJP candidate Dinesh Singh. Vineet Singh had helped Dinesh Singh's brother Avdesh Singh in the District Panchayat polls," he added.