The 15-member control room at the West Bengal State Election Commission (WBSEC) was found literally helpless despite being flooded with complaints of widespread poll violence leading to several deaths in districts till 10 am on Saturday in the absence of its staff.
Rajiva Sinha, the state election commissioner and former chief secretary, and Sanjoy Bansol, additional commissioner, did not reach the commission office at Sarojini Naidu Sarani till three hours after the rural body polls in the state started at 7 am.
Sinha arrived at around 10.05 am prompting the Opposition parties, BJP, CPI-M and Congress, to slam him for his late arrival particularly at a time when Murshidabad, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Malda, Cooch Behar and several other districts of the state were witnessing a reign of terror unleashed allegedly by the ruling Trinamool Congress.
On the other side, Governor C V Ananda Bose rushed to violence-hit areas like Kadambagachhi in North 24 Parganas and Chapra in the Nadia district to meet the families of deceased political workers.
An independent candidate was lynched allegedly by TMC workers at Kadambagachhi while a TMC man died during a clash allegedly between Trinamul and CPI-M-Congress workers.
Nilanjan Sandilya, state poll panel secretary, and some other employees reached the commission office early in the morning. But they could not take any decision to attend to flurry of complaints in connection with deaths of workers belonging to the ruling and the Opposition parties, hurling of bombs, firings, snatching of ballot papers, false voting, etc. in the absence of Sinha and Bansol.
The commission employees posted at the control room also could not contact Sinha despite repeated calls on his mobile phone till 10 am. Bansol reached a little earlier than his boss. The apparently helpless staff of the state poll panel could not even give any preliminary indications on polling percentage till 11.30 am, four and a half hours after the poll that started at 7 am.
“We were also virtually clueless about the booth-wise breakups on deployment of central forces in districts till 11 am when the commissioner directed district magistrates each to send reports in this regard,” sources at the election commission said.
Trinamul Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh tried to undermine the lapses saying, “The Opposition is making it an issue without any reason. The commissioner has monitored everything at home before he comes to the commission office at 10 am.”