Lock Up Anti-Socials: Trinamool To Poll Panel Ahead Of Nandigram Battle

The second phase of the mammoth, eight-phase elections in Bengal will be held on Thursday, when voting will take place in Nandigram as well.

Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress has written to the Election Commission, asking for the arrest of all anti-social elements in Purba Medinipur district -- largely controlled by Suvendu Adhikari and his family. Mr Adhikari -- a close aide of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who joined the BJP ahead of the elections -- is her rival in Nandigram, the place that catapulted Ms Banerjee to power in 2011. The second phase of the mammoth, eight-phase elections in Bengal will be held on Thursday, when voting will take place in Nandigram as well. "During the first phase of polls in Purba (east) Medinipur, there has been large scale violence by anti-social elements of the Bharatiya Janata Party, resulting in grave injuries to many people and also various instances of booth capturing, rigging and jamming by them," the Trinamool wrote to the poll commission. The party requested that in view of that, such people should be immediately taken into preventive custody. The Trinamool Congress, which is locked in a tough fight with the BJP for the state's 294 seats, also asked the Election Commission to not deploy armed forces from any of the BJP or NDA-ruled states including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh or Bihar for the ongoing elections. This, the party said, is to ensure that there is no partisanship and the elections are free and fair.