Election Commission bans Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh from campaigning for 24 hours

According to an Election Commission notice, Ghosh is prohibited from campaigning till 7pm on April 16. The action against Ghosh comes two days after he was asked by the poll body to respond over the Cooch Behar killings during the fourth phase of the ongoing West Bengal assembly elections on April 10.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday barred Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s West Bengal unit chief Dilip Ghosh from campaigning for 24 hours, holding him guilty of the violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). According to a notice by the ECI, Ghosh will be banned from campaigning till 7pm on April 16.

On Tuesday, Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh was asked by the Election Commission to clarify his stand on his remarks by Wednesday morning.

The action against the BJP’s Bengal unit chief comes two days after the poll body sent him a notice over his remarks on the killings of four men in Cooch Behar’s Sitalkuchi assembly constituency on April 10, during the polling for the fourth phase of the ongoing West Bengal assembly elections. While the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has described the killings as a “genocide,” the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) whose troopers opened fire, said that its Quick Reaction Team (QRT) was surrounded by an “armed mob,” forcing it to open fire in self-defense.

“Naughty boys, who had presumed that the rifles of the central forces were just for a show during election duty, will not dare repeat the same mistake after seeing what happened in Sitalkuchi,” Ghosh said on April 11, a day after the incident. “Naughty boys received bullets at Sitalkuchi. If anyone dares to take the law in his hands, this will happen to him also,” he further remarked.

Besides the four people who lost their lives in the firing by the CISF troops, an 18-year-old first-time voter, Anand Burman, was also killed in the same constituency earlier in the day. Following the violence, the polling in Sitalkuchi was adjourned.

On Wednesday, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee visited Cooch Behar to meet the families of the five people who lost their lives in the poll-related violence. She was earlier scheduled to go there on April 11, but on the night before, the ECI banned entry of political leaders in Cooch Behar for 72 hours.

The BJP has accused Banerjee of instigating people against the central forces. Action has also been taken against other BJP leaders for their remarks on the incident.

The next phase of the polling in West Bengal will take place on April 17. The eight-phased polls will see three more rounds of voting, on April 22, 26 and 29. The counting of votes and declaration of results will take place on May 2.