Janjivan Bureau / NEW DELHI: BJP chief Amit Shah on Wednesday blamed West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress for violence during his roadshow in Kolkata and accused the Election Commission of “double standards” for remaining a “mute spectator” to rigging and violation of the poll code in the state.
He rejected TMC’s allegation that BJP workers vandalised a bust of educationist and social reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, claiming the regional party was behind it.
At a press conference a day after the violence, he said it would have been difficult for him to survive the attack on his convoy but for the security of CRPF, a central police force.
“I want to tell the Election Commission that it has become a mute spectator to attempts to rig polls in West Bengal. It should immediately intervene. History-sheeters…are arrested during elections across the country. In Bengal, they are released after furnishing a bond. What is this double standards from from the EC? Why is it silent,” he asked.
Shah said election observers in their reports have said polls in the state cannot be conducted fairly till such miscreants are arrested but the EC did not act. It raises a lot of questions on the election watchdog’s impartiality, he said.
