My silence on EC was deliberate : Bhattacharjee

Kolkata, Jun 1 (UNI) West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today said he had deliberately refrained from criticising the Election Commission, because he knew that the Left Front would win the state Assembly elections.

" Though we faced many problems in the elections, I did not deliberately criticise the Election Commission for I knew that we would have to abide by the rule of the game, " he said while speaking at a felicitation, accorded to him by FICCI, Eastern Region and eleven other business and industrial organisations.

He made the comment as captains of industry congratulated him for the Front coming to power for the seventh successive term.

In an obvious reference to the unprecedented restrictions that the EC had imposed for the polls, Mr Bhattacharjee said the ruling Front had faced many problems because of the measures. " But I knew that we would win, " he said.

This was the Chief Minister's first reaction to the string of hard measures taken by the EC which had prompted other Left bigwigs, including CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat and veteran leader Jyoti Basu, to come down heavily on the poll panel.

In a victory celebration, organised by the Left Front recently, Mr Basu had accused the Commission of insulting the state and its people by ordering a five-phase polling and pressing people from outside into election duty.

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