New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Anirban Ganguly on Tuesday slammed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for violence during civic body polls, alleging that the State Election Commission is acting as a slave to the West Bengal government.
Mr Ganguly also alleged that State Election Commissioner (SEC) Saurab Das is a "slave of Trinamool Congress".
Speaking to ANI, Mr Ganguly said, "Saurab Das is a slave of the party (TMC); he has no existence of his own. The Supreme Court and the Kolkata High Court should introspect (the alleged violence) because when we filed a plea seeking deployment of Central security forces for conduction of free and fair elections, it was dismissed."
Expressing disappointment on dismissal of the BJP plea, Mr Ganguly said, "They (the courts) knew that the SEC won't (conduct a free and fair election) because it is working under the thumb of the state government, but still they dismissed the plea."
He gave details of the alleged violence during the civic body polls in West Bengal and said that everyone from across the country saw it over social media.
Slamming the Chief Minister, Mr Ganguly said that despite being a woman who often talks about women empowerment, she has unleashed goons out in public.
"She is gaining votes by inducing fear. Trinamool Congress cannot win a single ward. It is clearly looting. Why are the sympathisers of the TMC silent now?" he said.
Earlier on Monday, State Election Commissioner (SEC) Saurab Das briefed Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar at Raj Bhawan for over an hour regarding issues connected to the municipal poll process.
"SEC has been indicated to take all steps to ensure poll fairness and not holding elections to Howrah Municipality is the failure of constitutional duty," the Governor said.
Voting for 108 municipalities across West Bengal was held on Sunday, during which a clash between Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers broke out.
The BJP West Bengal vice-president Arjun Singh alleged that two Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were vandalized in ward 9 and there was a similar situation across the state.
The party has called a 12-hour statewide bandh for today against alleged rigging and violence in the state's civic polls.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)