BJP skips all-party meet, says police stopped them

The Asian Age.

Metros, Kolkata

The police allegedly, however, stopped them after telling them that only two members of the delegation would be allowed to the meeting.

In the evening two BJP leaders visited the WBSEC office after getting a call.

Kolkata: The BJP has threatened to move the Calcutta high court again after skipping the all-party meeting convened by the West Bengal state election commission on Saturday alleging that its delegation was not allowed by the police to attend the meeting.

Following the order by the single bench of the Calcutta high court state poll panel chief Amarendra Kumar Singh called the all-party meeting in the afternoon.

All political parties attended the meeting at the WBSEC’s office at Sarojini Naidu Sarani. A five-member BJP delegation led by Mukul Roy also reached by 1 pm.

The delegation included former MLA Shameek Bhattacharya, Joy Prakash Majumdar among others. The police allegedly, however, stopped them after telling that only two members of the delegation would be allowed to the meeting.

Mr Roy, however, claimed that he earlier had a round of talk with Mr Singh to attend the meeting in a five-member delegation.

An altercation followed between the cops and the BJP delegation.

The BJP skipped the meeting. Later Mr Roy said, “The state election commissioner was informed by our party office over phone in the morning that a five-member delegation from our party would attend the meeting.”

He added, “Even a mail was sent about it. We went to meet him but the police of the West Bengal government did not allow us to go inside. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, also the home minister, ordered the police to stop us. It is a dark chapter in the country’s history the way the state election commissioner behaved with us by engaging the police to stop us.” Mr Roy mentioned, “We drew attention of the high court to the incident. The high court registrar accepted our appeal. We will again knock the doors of the court complaining that the state election commissioner did not pay heed to us. We are leaving. Untill the state election commissioner says he would meet our delegation of five members we would not come here.”

He said, “Without consulting the petitioner he will not be able to schedule any date also. He assured us that he would place it for the high court’s attention. So the matter is sub-judice now. If the state election commissioner takes any decision without consulting us it will amount to contempt of court.”

In the evening two BJP leaders visited the WBSEC office after getting a call.

The person who headed the delegation declared that he would complain against the state poll panel about the high-handedness.

He informed that he has intimated the high court registrer about the incident.

Trinamul Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee alleged that the BJP did not want to face the test of the mass.

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