Kolkata: The Election Commission (EC) has appointed Ajay Naik, former Bihar Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) and a 1984-batch retired IAS officer, as a special observer to oversee the last five phases of Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal. He is expected to reach Kolkata on April 19, 2019 and will report to the EC on a daily basis.
After the opposition parties complained about booth capturing and incidents of violence in the first phase on April 11, the EC had decided to deploy Central Forces in 80% of the booths in three constituencies – Darjeeling, Raiganj, Jalpaiguri – that go to polls in the second phase scheduled on April 18. The state armed police will be present in the remaining 20% booths while CCTV cameras have been installed at all the booths. The EC and the West Bengal CEO can monitor the poll process live to check for any untoward incidents.
Earlier, in March, the EC had appointed Vivek Dubey as a Special Police Observer (SPO) after TMC and CPI(M) had expressed their concerns about the appointment of KK Sharma as a SPO citing his biased actions in the past. He had reportedly attended a RSS program in his uniform with the BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate Rantidev Sengupta from Howrah.
Two Lok Sabha seats – Cooch Behar and Alipurduar – witnessed polling in the first phase on April 11, while rest of the 40 constituencies will go to polls in six phases