‘Bengal reposed its trust in ballots not bullets’

Kolkata: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar on Monday expressed his satisfaction over peaceful polling in Bengal with hardly any incidents of major violence and bloodshed.

“Bengal has shown its trust in ballots rather than bullets,” the CEC said during a Press conference in New Delhi.

According to Kumar, 75 persons from 23 countries came to India and visited the many polling booths following which the poll dates were announced. “You must have remembered the earlier instances of violence in polls.

But this time, places such as Jharkhand, Manipur, Tripura, West Bengal, Kashmir and other parts of the country did not witness any major incidents of violence,” added the CEC.

The CEC further said that the seizure of cash, freebies, liquor etc. was huge in this election which shows that the Commission was able to curb money power to a large extent during the elections. Liquor worth Rs 4,391 crore was seized.

The poll watchdog expressed its optimism that post-poll violence will also be curbed with the state police and the central forces working in tandem.

The Commission has decided to keep Central Forces deployed even

after the announcement of results at some places, including Bengal.

It was decided there will be 400 companies of Central Forces in Bengal till June 19 for curbing of post poll violence, if any.