Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar stated that the upcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal later this year will be conducted fairly and without violence. He expressed confidence that voters will be able to cast their votes without fear or pressure. Kumar made these remarks before heading to Belur Math in Howrah, the international headquarters of the Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission.
The CEC, accompanied by the ECI’s full Bench, is scheduled to meet with top bureaucrats and senior police officers of the state government, including Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty and acting Director General of Police Peeyush Pandey after visiting Belur Math. A press conference will follow the meeting, and the Commission’s full Bench will return to Delhi later in the day.
A significant event is expected in West Bengal as the Supreme Court will hold a crucial hearing later in the day on the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state. The judicial adjudication process of voters’ documents under the “logical discrepancy” category is currently underway. The hearing before a three-judge Bench is set to commence at 3 P.M.
The judicial adjudication process involves 732 judicial officers, including 100 each from neighboring Jharkhand and Odisha. The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal estimates that the process may extend beyond the first week of April based on the current rate of proceedings. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s indefinite sit-in protest against the SIR exercise at Esplanade East in central Kolkata is set to continue, although her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, has urged her to withdraw the protest considering her age and health.
