New Delhi, Mar 20 (IANS): The BJP on Friday urged the Election Commission to censure West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for using unparliamentary language and levelling baseless allegation against Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
A BJP delegation submitted three memorandums to the poll panel and also demanded the deployment of central forces inside polling booths with an additional mandate to verify voter identity cards.
The delegation includes party General Secretary Bhupendra Yadav, Union Ministers Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Debasree Chaudhuri, and MP Anil Baluni.
In a memorandum to the EC against violation of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by Banerjee, the BJP cited her speech at a rally in Bankura on March 16 in which she had using unparliamentary language and levelled baseless allegations against Shah.
"The comments have been made with full knowledge of her falsity, intentionally to harm the reputation of our senior leader and party. It is a brazen attempt in the propagation of falsehood to mislead the general public and voter," the memorandum said.
The BJP urged the poll panel's intervention against Banerjee for her "continued fraudulent, baseless and abusive practice" and to pass prohibitory orders as "otherwise it might spoil the electoral environment, where abusing and spreading false news will become inevitable and the norm".
"Immediately censure Mamata Banerjee... Further, take appropriate legal action for her present and past conduct in gross contempt of and in blatant violation of model code of conduct and electoral laws as elucidated above," the BJP demanded.
In another memorandum, the BJP pointed that amid an alarming situation of political violence and electoral malpractices in the state, particularly the rampant misuse of state machinery and bureaucracy by the members of the Trinamool Congress, it is imperative that central forces are deployed at the polling booths for the impartial conduct of Assembly elections.
"Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) personnel be deployed along with the presiding officers and officers inside the polling booths in the upcoming Assembly elections. CAPF personnel should be assigned the responsibility of voter id or election card verification. This would be in addition to their authority over access control on the respective polling booths," the BJP demanded.
They further said that the CAPF personnel be directed to conduct patrolling on the day of polling for control of large-scale political violence, prevalent on polling days.
"This would not only impede bogus voting, control political violence and killing of political workers but also reaffirm the electorate's faith in the Indian Electoral system," the BJP said.
In their third memorandum referring to the attack on the party's candidate Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram, the BJP demanded deployment of CAPF at least 15 days before the polling day and some forces deployed even seven days after declaration result to check poll-related violence and to instill confidence among voters.