Kolkata: Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar faced protests with a group of people raising ‘go back’ slogans and showing black flags to him during his visit to Dakshineswar Kali Temple near here on Tuesday morning.
A similar protest over alleged arbitrary deletions in the post-SIR electoral rolls in the state was held outside the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport upon his arrival in Kolkata on Sunday night.
He had faced the ‘go back’ slogans and was shown black flags on Monday morning when he visited the Kalighat Temple in the southern part of the city.
Despite the protests outside the Dakshineswar Kali Temple, Kumar continued with his scheduled programmes in the state.
The CEC also visited Belur Math in Howrah district this morning, and said the poll panel is committed to violence-free elections in West Bengal.
He said the commission will make efforts to ensure that voters can exercise their franchise in a festive environment.
“The EC would like to ensure that polls will be violence-free or intimidation-free,” Kumar said while speaking to reporters during his visit to Belur Math.
The CEC is on a visit to the state to review poll preparedness and held meetings with political parties and officials on Monday ahead of the assembly elections.
During the meetings on Monday, Kumar warned that any lapse in maintaining law and order ahead of the elections would not be tolerated and stressed the need for strict monitoring to ensure free and fair polls.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had accused Kumar of threatening state officials during a meeting with the administration on Monday, and warned that “false bravado” by constitutional authorities was not acceptable, stepping up the confrontation between the state government and the poll panel over the voter deletions in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
According to official data released on February 28, 63.66 lakh names, around 8.3 per cent of the electorate, have been deleted since the SIR process began in November last year, reducing the voter base from about 7.66 crore to just over 7.04 crore.
In addition, over 60.06 lakh electors have been placed under the “under adjudication” category, meaning their eligibility will be determined through legal scrutiny in the coming weeks, a process that could further reshape constituency-level electoral equations.
