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The Congress on Thursday demanded repolling in all 37 assembly seats in Midnapore district, urging Chief Election Commissioner M S Gill to "rectify the situation" following alleged largescale rigging by Communist Party of India-led Leftist forces.
"I have met the chief election commissioner and urged him to hold repolling in all 37 assembly seats in West Bengal's Midnapore district, which has been reeling under the terrror tactics of the CPI-led Leftist forces," said party general secretary incharge of West Bengal Kamal Nath.
He told reporters at the All-India Congress Committee headquarters that he had just spoken to Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who had reached Midnapore on Wednesday night.
"Our party workers (of the Congress-Trinamul combine) gheraoed the district magistrate of Midnapore, who failed to prevent the terror tactics of the leftist," Nath contended.
He pointed out that following reports of widespread violence received by the central Congress leadership regarding West Bengal, he also told the CEC that the state's chief electoral officer had failed to initiate preventive measures against the Leftists.
However, he contended, "The Congress-Trinamul combine will form the government in West Bengal by defeating the Communist Party of India-Marxists-led Left Front despite all that is appearing in the media."
"The people in West Bengal have voted for the Congress-Trinamul combine wherever they have been allowed to vote," Nath asserted, alleging that the Leftists, in collusion with goons, were preventing people who were determined to vote for the combine.
"Unfortunately, the list of sensitive booths given by the Congress to the Election Commission has been totally ignored by the state chief electoral officer," Nath charged.
He said the central party leadership had received reports of violence in Midnapore, Bankura, Howrah and Purulia.
"So far, we have received a report that one person has been killed, but I am not sure about the final tally," he pointed out.
He said the polls in Assam had been by and large peaceful, except in Kokrajhar district.
He alleged that the Leftists were trying to terrorise minority voters and there were a few problems in Malda and Dinajpur.
Later, chief Congress spokesman S Jaipal Reddy said the government's opening up of the defence sector to privatisation was a "prelude to privatisation of the public sector undertakings dealing in the defence sector." "Though the opening (by the government) has been cautiously worded, it is the thin end of the wedge. This is a ploy to privatise the defence sector," Reddy pointed out.
"The Hindujas tried to privatise diplomacy and this government is privatising the defence sector," he quipped.
Reddy, however, pleaded ignorance when asked by a reporter whether the erstwhile Rajiv Gandhi Congress government had sought similar help from the Hindujas.
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