By IANS,
Kolkata: Without naming Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal’s ruling CPI-M Tuesday urged the Election Commission to execute ahead of the April-May assembly polls the arrest warrants pending against leaders of the state’s main opposition party.
Some of the Trinamool leaders were facing non-bailable warrants over clashes with police at Barasat in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district in 1994, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) said.
Banerjee, who was the state Youth Congress president in 1994, held a rally near Barasat in North 24 Parganas district in which a clash broke out between Congress supporters and policemen, resulting in injury to three top police officers. A compliant against Banerjee was lodged then.
“We have highlighted several issues to the Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi regarding violation of the model code of conduct and execution of non-bailable arrest warrants pending against Trinamool leaders,” said Rabin Deb, CPI-M state secretariat member, after meeting the Election Commission’s full bench here.
“We have also requested the Election Commission to issue orders to arrest those leaders who are accused in the Barasat incident in Feb 22, 1994,” he said.
“We have not mentioned the names of the accused but asked them to look into the matter. The Election Commission should inquire what had happened in that particular day and we are waiting for what action the commission takes against those accused,” he said.
“No one in our party is aware whether a non-bailable warrant (NBW) was pending against Mamata Banerjee. If Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s police could not enforce NBW in years together then they don’t have the right to stay in power,” said Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee.
Quraishi, along with senior poll panel officials, arrived in the city Tuesday for talks with West Bengal officials and representatives of political parties on the preparedness for the April-May assembly polls.
The six-phase assembly polls will be held in West Bengal April 18 to May 10. The results will be declared May 13.