The state election commissioner is continuously getting death threats from some state ministers and all his calls are being tapped for which he is being forced to conduct the panchayat poll process according to the diktats of the ruling party, alleged the BJP’s national secretary Rahul Sinha today at a meet-the-Press programme.

The Opposition parties are convinced that the state election commissioner was not discharging his constitutional duty and is kowtowing before the ruling Trinamul, Mr Sinha said.

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“He seems to be so helpless that he can’t even muster the courage to be upfront about the situation. As things stand now, the court alone is the only refuge for the Opposition to remedy the situation and save democracy in Bengal under attack by Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamul. No wonder Miss Banerjee has openly claimed that the ruling party is not only going to have a clean sweep, but will win almost all the seats,” Mr Sinha said.

The BJP national secretary suggested that under the Trinamul regime no free and fair poll is possible. If the panchayat poll is to be held only in one day, this would be possible only if there is  online voting  so that the Trinamul didn’t  get a chance to send its goons to take control of the booths.

The Trinamul supremo is trying to win the hearts of the minority voters by pleading with the judiciary that the rural poll can’t be held during the Ramzan. Even then, she so scared of the BJP  that she  getting “civil volunteers’ T-shirts” printed in bulk  to be used by her party activists for rigging the panchayat poll, Mr Sinha alleged.

According to Mr Sinha the Left Front was indirectly responsible for the current mess in holding the panchayat poll as the Trinamul was implementing the tactics of looting votes followed by the LF during its prolonged rule in the state.

BJP, he said,  is prepared to stop the “misdeeds” of the Trinamul-government with the help of the people. The Trinamul stands in the way of the development of the state, while the Narendra Modi-government at the Centre is committed to Bengal’s development, he asserted.