Declare Bengal 'super sensitive state' for fair polls: BJP tells EC

New Delhi, Mar 13: The Bharatiya Janata Party has urged the Election Commission to declare West Bengal, a sensitive state during the upcoming general election.

Addressing media outside the EC office in Delhi, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the delegation put forth certain demands, including freedom of press and deployment of central forces in the state.

"We have demanded that the state of West Bengal should be declared as super-sensitive state. We've also demanded that central forces should be deployed at all polling booths," said Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

"The 1986 circular which disallows loudspeakers schools and religious places. This is not right. We have requested the EC to ensure fair elections to be conduct," he added.

The delegation including Prasad, Nirmala Sitharaman, Kailash Vijaywargiyya, Mukul Roy and JP Nadda has asked Election Commission to appoint a media observer at every polling booth in West Bengal.

Slamming Trinamool Congress' rule in West Bengal, Prasad said, "This is a state where ballot papers were stamped even during counting, and victorious candidates were not allowed to enter the state. Where officers sit in dharnas with the chief minister of the state' helicopters are also not allowed to land," he added.

The BJP delegation told the Election Commission that Rahul violated the Model Code of Conduct by making unverified claims against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"The model code of conduct clearly states that one cannot make unverified allegations against any political leader. But Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday in Ahmedabad made a scurrilous, shameful and false allegation against the prime minister about 'picking money out of the air force's pockets and put it in the pockets of certain industrialists.'"

The BJP and Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress have been at loggerheads since the appointment of Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister. The saffron party has also managed to make inroads into the state which was formerly a Left bastion.