Bengal poll panel issues notice to presiding officers, observers

Five days after the Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls, the West Bengal State Election Commission on Thursday slapped show cause notice on two presiding officers and two observers for failing to report malpractices in the elections.

"We have show caused two presiding officers. We have asked them to explain why they didn't report electoral malpractices in the proper way," state Election Commissioner S.R. Upadhyay told media persons here.

He said two observers who had told the panel over phone about malpractices but failed to mention them in their written reports, have also been issued notices.

All four have been asked to reply within 48 hours.

He said the municipal returning officer has been told to give a report why video cameras were kept inoperative in several booths.

A staggering number of 1,400 presiding officers did not furnish the SMS updates of the poll percentage to the commission. The municipal returning officer has been asked to provide reasons for the presiding officers' failure, Upadhyay said.

Meanwhile, the Left Front has threatened to convene a state-wide shutdown if there were electoral malpractices in the April 25 polls to 88 municipalities, two municipal corporations and a notified area.

West Bengal Left Front chairman Biman Bose alleged that Upadhyay was keeping a "deafening silence" on the issue.

"The SEC (poll panel) is completely inert. But we won't sit silently. If there is a repeat of the ugly scenes one saw in the April 18 KMC polls, we will lodge complaint with the commissioner and ask him to prevent the irregularities."

"We may be compelled to call a shutdown on strike throughout the state in protest against all these happenings," said the Left Front chairman.