Newly appointed state election commissioner Rajiva Sinha oversaw a violent rural poll on Saturday. The Telegraph takes a look at events at the Sarojini Naidu Sarani office of the state poll panel.
7am: Polling starts. No senior officer present but the control room works in full swing. Complaints of rigging and violence start pouring in.
8am: Poll panel secretary Nilanjan Shandilya arrives at 7.22am. Commissioner nowhere to be seen. The control room is flooded with complaints.
10am: The commissioner’s car rolled into the SEC. Sinha walks into his office.
A few minutes later, Sinha sends a group WhatsApp text seeking information about booths where central forces have been deployed.
11.30am: Reports on deployment of central forces come in. Malda district administration is the first to send. The panel shares information with Dilip Malik, deputy commandant of Bengal sector of the CRPF.
Noon: Complaints rise. Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari calls up Sinha, rebuking him for his “failure” to conduct a free and fair election.
1.30pm: A man with a BJP flag barges inside. The law enforcers run after him. Trespasser Rakhbir Singh, a worker of BJP’s youth wing, makes his way to the landing of the first floor in front of Sinha’s chamber. Cops drag him outside. BJP workers protest. All are taken away by the police. The saffron camp claims 30 youth wing members, along with its state chief Indranil Khan, are arrested.
2pm: An officer from the BSF arrived at the commission’s office with a letter from Satish Chandra Budakoti, the IG BSF and Calcutta High Court-appointed nodal officer to coordinate the deployment of central forces. Budakoti says the commission has been extremely non-cooperative. Sources said several central force jawans who arrived on Friday night got no food till 3am and there was no deployment plan. In a reply to Budakoti, the commission expresses surprise.
2.30pm: Sinha tells journalists that only three deaths on poll day were reported to him. "The SEC cannot predict when someone will open fire," he says. Panel sources claim later the toll is four.
5pm: Left Front leaders, including Biman Bose, Md Salim and others, reach the office to protest against poll violence.
5.30pm: Members of Sangrami Joutha Mancha arrive, complaining assault of government employees
7.30pm: BJP's Adhikari arrives for a meeting
8pm: Adhikari leaves the office and locks the main gate to protest the SEC's "utter failure" to hold a free and fair poll. Giving examples of multiple incidents of violence by the ruling Trinamul across Bengal, Adhikari says he has demanded that CCTV and videography footage be checked by experts by Sunday afternoon. After he leaves, cops unlock the gate.
