There’ll be no loot of votes in Jan 22 civic poll: TMC

Kolkata, Jan 14: Trinamool Congress on Friday asserted that there will be no “loot of votes” or “strong arm tactics” during the January 22 poll in four civic bodies in West Bengal and strict disciplinary action will be taken against “stray elements” in the party if there was any excesses by them.
The ruling TMC will win the municipal corporation poll by an emphatic margin because of its large volume of work, party veteran Sougata Roy told reporters while launching the manifesto for Bidhanmagar Municipal Corporation polls.
Reminded of reports of large scale rigging and malpractices during the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation poll in October, 2015, the last election in the civic body of the satellite township near Kolkata, Roy said, “Forget what happened in the past. There will be no loot of votes. We will win on the strength of the volume of work done for the people of Bidhannagar and in other places.”
Several reporters and camera persons were allegedly assaulted by unidentified men when they were covering the Bidhannagar election in October 2015. Opposition parties CPI(M), Congress and BJP had blamed TMC for it and alleged malpractices.
“We have zero tolerance to any strong arm tactics by anyone during the coming civic poll as was stated by our national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee before the December Kolkata Municipal Corporation poll. We will not allow any excesses. Like in the past we will again win with the peoples mandate. Why should we adopt any unfair means?” Roy added.
Taking a jibe at Roy, BJP spokesman Samik Bhattacharya said “He is a veteran MP who won the best parliamentarian honour in the past. But going by the experience in the December KMC poll when rigging and false voting by TMC was rampant, we do not have any faith in what he assures about the coming polls in Bidhannagar or in the other civic bodies.” (PTI)