EC to identify ‘expenditure sensitive’ booths in Bengal

KOLKATA:  Ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha elections, West Bengal is under the scanner of the Election Commission of India as the poll panel, for the first time, has started identifying “expenditure sensitive” polling booths across the state.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, many states were found in the poll panel’s list of expenditure-sensitive booths. Trinamool Congress-dominated West Bengal is facing such scanning for the first time. The poll panel identifies areas where money power is perceived to influence the polls.

In the previous general election, more than 110 booths across the country were identified as expenditure-sensitive. Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Telengana were among the top three. Bengal has never been on such a list.

Sources in the Election Commission said chief electoral officer Aariz Aftab recently met officials of income tax, customs and port trust authorities to identify Bengal’s expenditure sensitive booths. “The Central agencies have been told to examine suspicious fund transactions in the past six months in those Assembly constituencies which are under the scanner. The agencies have also been asked to submit a report within this month,” said an official of the Election Commission.

He also pointed out that the state poll panel would send a detailed report to the ECI before its members visit Bengal. Amid allegations of money being splurged to “buy” voters in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, in which the BJP made deep inroads in West Bengal by taking its tally to 18 from 2 out of 42 LS seats, the state police seized cash amounting to Rs 1.13 lakh from a vehicle, in which saffron camp’s candidate in West Midnapore’s Ghatal and former IPS officer Bharati Ghosh were travelling, only two days before the constituency went to the polls. She was detained by the police for three hours for questioning. When the TMC alleged Bharati was carrying the money to influence voters, the BJP candidate said the money was meant for her personal expenses.

Another official of the poll panel said, “The ECI is cautious before the next year’s general election as allegations of money power surfaced in the previous LS polls,” said a source. The TMC said the BJP would be in trouble because of the poll panel’s move. “They don’t have the organisational strength to get voters’ support. They’ll try to buy votes.”