Kolkata: A day before the bypolls in Uluberia Lok Sabha constituency in Howrah and Noapara Assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas BJP leader Mukul Roy claimed that democracy has been turned into a ‘mockery’ in the state.
On Sunday he alongwith another BJP leader Joyprakash Majumdar visited the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal. Expressing their apprehension of electoral malpractices they pressed for free and fair poll on Monday in the two constituencies.
Later Mr Roy said, “Recently assembly elections were held in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. But no one lodged any complaint with the Election Commission of India. But what is happening in West Bengal now is mockery of democracy.”
He alleged, “The present situation is worse than that of 2011. I saw the situation at that time when I toured across the state and knocked doors of the Election Commission while being in the Trinamul Congress to demand restoration of democracy.”
The former Rajya Sabha MP added, “Today I visited the Election Commission office to seek that the people should be allowed to exercise their franchise.” According to him, the situation at Bagnan, Amta and Udaynarayanpur under Uluberia LS constituency is grim.
Mr Roy wondered if the voters in those areas would be able to cast their votes in face of threats. In Uluberia the Trinamul has made Sajda, wife of Sultan Ahmed who died while being the MP, as the candidate.
While the CPI(M)-led Left Front candidate is Sabiruddin Mollah, the Congress has made S K Madassar Hossain Warsi. The BJP however fielded Anupam Mallik. In Noapara, the Trinamul candidate is Sunil Singh while the CPI(M) fielded Gargi Chatterjee.
The Congress has made Goutam Bose as its candidate, the Bharatiya Janata Party fielded Sandip Banerjee after Manju Basu, a former Trinamul Congress MLA, refused to contest within hours of the announcement of her name as a BJP candidate.
