By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The Returning Officers (ROs) of South West Garo Hills and West Garo Hills have refuted the allegation that they sabotaged the tours of two BJP leaders — Bijoya Chakraborty and Smriti Irani — on Tuesday saying that no coordinates was issued by the administration.
South West Garo Hills Returning Officer Ram Singh on Wednesday said the BJP had sought permission for landing of the chopper carrying two leaders and for holding a public meetig on Tuesday morning.
The letter did not mention the timings of chopper landing, he said adding “Immediately I informed the SP and flying squads,” he said.
The party could have taken the permission few days before their meeting, he said.
It may be mentioned that two BJP leaders Bijoya Chakraborty and Smriti Irani missed the opportunity to campaign in Garo Hills on Tuesday as the chopper in which they were traveling could not land in the specific locations in West and South West Garo Hills.
The BJP alleged that the details of helicopter landing permission and technical information given by the administration to the party workers which was subsequently passed on to pilots turned out to be incorrect. On the other hand, the West Garo Hills Returning Officer Pravin Bakshi has demanded a written apology from BJP and also decided to appeal to the Chief Electoral Officer to protect them from baseless attacks.
He also said that the SP did not issue any coordinate.
“They put the blame on us just to appease their star campaingers who must be fuming at them,” he said. Bakshi also denied that he gave any coordinate to the saffron party.
He also wondered as to who had given the coordinates to BJP.
The Chief Electoral Officer P. Naik said that the political parties are supposed to collect the coordinates from deputy commissioner or SP, but in the case of BJP, no coordinate was issued by the officials.