The Trinamul Congress has demanded single-phase Lok Sabha (LS) elections in West Bengal from the Election Commission of India (ECI). In 2019, LS polls were held in seven phases in the state.

A 15-member- full bench of the ECI, headed by the chief election commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar on Monday held meetings with representatives of eight recognized political parties like Trinamul Congress, BJP, CPM and others separately in the city to hear their suggestions and grievances in connection with parliamentary polls in the state.

The commission will announce dates of LS polls in the country any day, probably by 10 March. The full-bench reached Kolkata on Sunday evening to review law and order situations in the state by holding series of meetings with chief electoral officer (CEO) Ariz Aftab, political parties, district magistrates (DMs), superintendents of police (SPs), senior IPS and IAS officers like chief secretary, home secretary and director general of police (DGP) and inspector general of police (IGP) during its three-day-long visit to the state.

A team of Trinamul Congress representatives, headed by the party MP Kalyan Bandyopadhyay met the full-bench and urged the commission to hold elections on a single day in the state.

“Elections in our state were held in seven phases to give political advantages to BJP as well as its leaders Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. We have urged the commission for single-phase elections this time and maximum force can be deployed by the commission if the polls are held in a day,” said Mr Bandyopadhyay.

“People are getting scared and could not cast votes because of deployment of central forces. The central forces work as an agent of the BJP. Suvendu Adhikari controls central forces directing them where to go for area patrolling,” he alleged.

“The election commission should work impartially. Apart from ED (Enforcement Directorate) and CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), the commission should control some people in the judiciary who are keeping contacts with BJP,” The Trinamul Congress MP said.

“We have briefed the commission about incidents of massive violence, rigging and false voting during rural body polls in 2023 in the state with direct and indirect support of a section of state government officers, including police personnel. We have urged the commission not to involve these government officers and employees in the poll process this time. Free and fair polls are not possible if these people are engaged again in LS polls,” said CPM leader Samik Lahiri, who along with two other leaders of the party met the full-bench today.

On the other hand, while holding meetings with DMs and SPs across districts, the CEC Mr Kumar has reportedly asked them not to involve civic volunteers (CVs) with any kind of poll process directly or indirectly in the state.

The bench categorically asked DMs and SPs not to suppress facts in connection with any incident of law and order situations in their respective districts before the commission.

The commission also alerted the DMs and SPs about fake voters in the state. Suvendu Adhikari, BJP MLA and Leader of Opposition on 28 February had lodged a complaint with the CEO office alleging that there are 16 lakh fake voters in the state.

It wanted to know about law and situations specifically from Praveen Tripathi, commissioner of Howrah police commissionerate.

The bench will hold a series of meetings separately with senior administrative officers like CS B P Gopalika, home secretary Nandini Chakraborty, DGP Rajeev Kumar on Tuesday.