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A high-level team of the Election Commission led by a deputy election commissioner will be in West Bengal, Assam, Tripura and Manipur in the coming days to assess poll preparedness, official sources .
The decision to send Deputy Election Commissioner Sudip Jain comes a day after the BJP urged the poll watchdog to declare West Bengal a “super sensitive state”.
The BJP is desperate to make an impact in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls in the state. In 2014, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) won 34 seats, the Congress four, while the BJP and CPM bagged two seats each in the state. West Bengal has 42 Lok Sabha Seats.
Jain will lead the team to West Bengal on Saturday, Tripura on Sunday, Assam on Monday and Manipur on Tuesday to assess election preparedness in the four states.
While Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal are spread across all the seven phases, they will be held in two phases each in Tripura and Manipur and three in Assam.
The BJP had also demanded that central forces be deployed at all polling stations in the state.
Briefing the media after meeting election commission officials, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said, “We have requested the Election Commission that the state of West Bengal should be declared as super-sensitive. And have also demanded that central forces should be deployed at all polling booths in the state.”
He said the party also requested the poll panel to transfer those police officers whose electoral impartiality is questionable as well as the withdrawal of former Kolkata Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar from election duty.
