NEW DELHI: Left parties on Monday petitioned the Election Commission against the deployment of Central paramilitary forces inside polling booths of West Bengal and the ban on posters and wall-writing in the State.

In a memorandum to the Commission, the parties also questioned the conduct of some poll officials and the deletion of names of bonafide voters, including some of their own sitting and former members of Parliament, from the electoral rolls.

Briefing mediapersons later, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat said the parties registered their opposition to the decision to hand over the entire security arrangement within the polling premises to electoral authorities with the State Government only being informed about their decisions. Besides Mr. Karat, others who formed part of the delegation were CPI national secretary D. Raja, Revolutionary Socialist Party leader Abani Roy and Nilotpal Basu (CPI-M).

"Given the fact that a large number of security forces from outside the State will be exclusively responsible for maintenance of law and order within the poll premises, communication [given the language barrier] may become a major problem," the Left parties noted in their memorandum. In turn, they demanded that specific guidelines be issued to allow the State police to play a coordinating role in handling any untoward incidents.

`Uncalled for'

The Left parties are also particularly peeved at the Commission's ban on wall-writings and use of posters and banners in any public or private place in the whole of West Bengal. Describing the ban as "uncalled for," the Left parties noted that this had resulted in the denial of a cheap mode of campaign for political parties. Also, according to Mr. Karat, this could well raise election expenditure.

Further, they have questioned the manner in which genuine voters had been struck off the electoral rolls by terming them Bangladeshis. Though the Commission is said to have conceded that some genuine names had been dropped, Mr. Karat said it had at first expressed inability to make amends on the premise that it was too late in the day for that. However, at Monday's meeting, the Left parties secured an assurance from the Commission that instructions would be issued to include such cases in the electoral rolls, he said.

Another issue that they raised at the meeting pertained to the Commission's guideline that allows an observer to stop counting of votes if in his her/opinion booth-capturing had taken place at a large number of polling stations.

The opinion of the Left parties is that the basis for ascertaining booth-capturing is not "clear, transparent and self-explanatory" and, therefore, could be open to subjective interpretation.

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