Trinamul Congress today wrote to the Election commission against inducting police from BJP-ruled states especially Uttar Pradesh for poll duty and put a stop on “harassment” to party candidates by issuing summons at the behest of central agencies like CBI and ED.

In a letter to the chief electoral officer (CEO) Aariz Aftab, Trinamul national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’ Brien said, “We are not against police deployment from any other non BJP-ruled states but we have serious reservations against inducting cops from BJP-ruled states especially from Uttar Pradesh for poll duty because we think EC’s neutrality will be compromised. It has come to our notice that the poll panel in an order has inducted 30 company of armed police Forces from the BJP-ruled state Uttar Pradesh for poll duty in the state. Our reservation against cops from UP stemmed from the fact that since the chief minister of that particular state, Yogi Adityanath, is one of the star campaigners for the saffron brigade in the state, it can have an adverse bearing on the polls because they could be biased towards the BJP and could also call the EC’s neutrality into question. Hence, we have written to the CEO urging him to take the matter with the EC for putting a stop on inducting cops from Uttar Pradesh with immediate effect”.

The Trinamul Congress’s letter to the EC regarding force deployment assumed significant as the poll panel, which is uncompromising regarding security to ensure free and fair polls and whose full bench had only yesterday at a meeting with DMs, SPs, and CPs of eight districts of North Bengal had asked the officers concerned to commission the process of “web casting” and had also hinted at ramping up force deployment to at least 1,000 companies when the polls begin.

In what could be seen as mounting pressure on the EC, the Trinamul Congress had already given a deputation at the EC headquarters in Delhi recently for the deployment of state police alongside the central forces within the 100m of a polling booth against its diktat to only post the central forces inside 100m of polling centre.