Bengal Governor says will be in Cooch Behar on polling day, EC opposes move (Lead)

West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose has announced his intent to camp in the Cooch Behar Lok Sabha constituency in north Bengal on April 19, the day the constituency goes to polls in the first phase, but the poll panel has urged him to refrain.

Sources said that the Governor took the decision after considering the record of poll-related violence in previous elections.

As per the schedule, said Raj Bhavan sources, the Governor will start for Cooch Behar from Kolkata on Thursday morning and will leave the constituency in the evening after the elections are over.

However, later in the day, a communique was sent from the Election Commission to the Governor’s office, suggesting he refrain from being in Cooch Behar on the polling day, since that would amount to a violation of the model code of conduct.

However, there was no reaction from the Governor’s House yet to the EC message.

Besides Cooch Behar, two other Lok Sabha constituencies, namely Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar, are also going for polls on the same day. However, the Governor decided to be in Cooch Behar considering the sensitivity of the constituency going by the past reports of poll violence there.

On March 16, the day the Election Commission announced the polling schedule, the Governor said that he would be on the field from day one. “I will hit the streets at 6 a.m. I will be available to the people. The political ‘holi’ with human blood that happened in the panchayat elections last year should not be allowed anymore,” he had said then.

Last month, a new portal was also launched at the Raj Bhavan through which the Governor could directly interact with the common voters in the state and address their grievances about the polls. The portal has a dedicated email through which any voter in the state can directly register their grievances.