By Soumitra Nandi
Kolkata: Five days after the municipal polls in the city, the West Bengal State Election Commission on Thursday acted tough and issued show-cause notices to two presiding officers and two observers for irregularities in the election to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
"Show-cause notices have been issued against two presiding officers of booth number 26 under Ward number 65 and booth number 32 of Ward number 134 asking them as to why they failed to report incidents of alleged electoral malpractices properly," said State Election Commissioner S R Upadhyay.
Upadhyay said that show-cause notices were also issued against two observers, asking them why their report did not have any mention of electoral malpractices which they had informed to the State Election Commission over phone," Upadhyay said.
The commission has sought the replies within 48 hours in all these cases. “The Municipal Returning Officer had also been asked to report as why video cameras were kept inoperative in a number of booths,” said Upadhyay.
According to the election commissioner, a total of 1400 presiding officers failed to submit poll updates to the commission Upadhyay asked the Municipal Returning Officer about the reason of failure on the part of those presiding officers.
Regarding a complaint of booth-capturing under Ward number 32 by CPI (M) candidate Rupa Bagchi, Upadhyay said that the Municipal Returning Officer was asked to report by Friday about the allegation.
Bagchi alleged that in a particular booth the number of male votes polled were more than those listed in the voters' list. "Over 104 per cent of polling of male votes is a clear example of booth-capturing," Bagchi said.
Meanwhile, the report regarding gunshot injury to a sub-inspector at Girish Park was also furnished before the state election commissioner. The report stated that it was a clash between two groups with lathis and arms, during which someone fired from his revolver which injured the SI. Six persons were arrested in the incident, the report said, according to the SEC.
The Governor of West Bengal Sri Keshari Nath Tripathi, had summoned Upadhyay on Wednesday and asked him to see that next Saturday's civic poll was peaceful.