JOIN USBengal polls: EC imposes 24-hour campaign ban on BJP's Sayantan Basu, TMC's Sujata Mondal
The Election Commission has barred the general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s unit in West Bengal, Sayantan Basu, from campaigning for the next 24 hours, as he violated the Model Code of Conduct with a "highly provocative" statement.
The poll-panel acted against Sayantan Basu for his comment about the death of four people due to firing by the personnel of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) during voting at Sitalkuchi in Cooch Behar on April 10.
The commission also barred Trinamool Congress’s candidate for the Arambagh constituency in West Bengal, Sujata Mondal Khan, for campaigning for 24 hours for calling people of the Scheduled Castes as “beggars by nature”.
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The poll-panel had earlier issued notices to both Basu and Khan for flouting the Model Code of Conduct. Though they explained their positions in response to the notices, the EC was not convinced. It “sternly” warned both of them against making such statements.
Four people were killed when the personnel of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) opened fire on a mob at a polling station in Sitalkuchi assembly constituency of the state on April 10. Another man, whom the BJP claimed to be the brother of one of its local leaders, was also killed in a separate incident in the constituency on the same day.
Basu recently said at a public rally in Baranagar in West Bengal that four had been killed by the security personnel in Sitalkuchi after the brother of the BJP leader had been killed. “There was a dialogue in the film ‘Sholay’, you know, ‘if you kill one, we will kill four of you’. Sitalkuchi witnessed it – ‘if you kill one, we will kill four of you’,” he was quoted saying in the authenticated transcript the EC received from the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal.
The general secretary of the BJP’s unit in West Bengal in his reply to the EC’s notice claimed that his statement had been misinterpreted and he had only meant that the security forces would sternly deal with any violation of law.
He also alleged that the TMC workers had tried to rig the polling at Sitalkuchi in Cooch Behar and the security personnel had to open fire to maintain law and order, to ensure free and fair elections and to save themselves.
Khan said that she had made the comment about the people of the Scheduled Castes just after the BJP goons had attacked her. She said that her comment had only reflected her anguish over the BJP’s attempt to exploit the vulnerabilities of the people belonging to the Scheduled Castes.