CPI(M) objects to raids on party offices in W Bengal

New Delhi, Apr 9 (UNI) The Communist Party of India(Marxist) has alleged that Election Commission Observers are arbitrarily ordering arrests and raids arrogating executive powers to themselves in the run-up to the Assembly polls in West Bengal.

''The way some Observers are behaving in ordering arrests and raids etc shows that they are arrogating executive powers to themselves,'' the party Polit Bureau said in a statement issued here today reacting to an inquiry report by the Election Commission team on a raid on a CPI(M) office.

''It is necessary for the Election Commission to clarify whether the Observers have executive powers under the present laws of the land to direct such raids,'' the statement said.

The party expressed concern over the statement of the Election Commission over its complaint of raid on the party's zonal office in Keshpur and the premises of one of its sympathisers under the instructions of a central observer.

''The Polit Bureau is surprised to note that the conclusions of the inquiry conducted on the entire sequence of the raid and the role of the concerned observer does not tally with the facts revealed in the statement itself,'' the statement said.

Referring to the complaint the party had made about the Observer ordering the raid at the behest of some Trinamool Congress leaders, the party said the Observer for reason not known relied exclusively on the charges made by a candidate with vested interest in the elections. It regretted that the Election Commission did not consider it necessary to mention in its report that nothing was found in the raid on the CPI(M) office, nor did it mention that the Trinamool Congress candidate had made a false complaint against the CPI(M).

UNI YS PK BD1628