BJP demands no West Bengal government employee should be used in 2021 polls

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has urged the Election Commission of India to conduct the crucial 2021 West Bengal assembly polls with the help of central government employees only and not to involve any employee of the West Bengal government in the poll process.

This came a day after a section of the state government employees expressed their allegiance towards the Trinamool Congress in a meeting with chief minister Mamata Banerjee at the state secretariat.

“The BJP demands that in the interest of conducting free and fair polls, which is one of the prime objectives of the ECI, the entire poll process should be conducted by central government employees and not a single person from the state should be used,” the BJP wrote in its letter to the chief electoral officer (CEO) of West Bengal.

A four-member BJP delegation led by Pratap Banerjee, vice president of the party’s state unit, met the CEO on Friday.

“We were shocked to learn that on December 3, a meeting was held in the state secretariat between chief minister Mamata Banerjee and members of the Paschim Banga Rajya Karmachari Federation (a federation of state government employees), in which the convener and members of the federation in a serial manner pledged their allegiance to Banerjee and TMC in the forthcoming Vidhan Sabha elections,” the letter, submitted to the state CEO, stated.

The BJP also alleged that in the meeting one of the federation members went to the extent of asking the chief minister to give them guidelines on how they can work towards ensuring electoral victory for the TMC.

The TMC, however, took a dig at the BJP.

“There is no end to the demands of the BJP and they want everything. Someday they may demand that state elections be held with the help of Interpol,” said Tapas Roy, state minister and a TMC veteran.

With an eye on the crucial 2021 Bengal assembly elections, the chief minister also announced 3 per cent dearness allowance for 10 lakh state government employees from January 1, 2021. This would cost the state exchequer Rs 2,200 crore.

Dilip Ghosh, BJP’s head in West Bengal, has already said that there would be heavy deployment of central armed police forces during the elections and the state police will not be allowed to come near the polling booths.