West Bengal polls 2016: Will abide by EC rules, says new Kolkata Police commissioner

Kolkata, April 14: Soumen Mitra, who took over as the commissioner of Kolkata Police on Wednesday following the removal of Rajiv Kumar by the Election Commission (EC) on charges of favouring the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), said soon assuming responsibility that he would fully abide by the EC in the ongoing Assembly election. [Rajiv Kumar removed as Kolkata police commissioner]

Mitra, who has taken over in the middle of the high-profile election, has just a week before Kolkata goes to the election on April 21. The state capital will go to its second phase of election on May 30. The new commissioner said in a press conference that he is taking the new responsibility as a challenge.

The first two phases of election held in the western districts of the state have seen enough incidents of clashes between the ruling and Opposition party supporters. The Opposition parties complained that if Kumar continued as the commissioner, then it would not be possible to see fair polling in Kolkata. The EC took its step soon after getting the complaints.

The full bench of the poll panel was set to visit Kolkata on Thursday. The new commissioner is also schedulked to meet top officers on the upcoming elections. On Wednesday, Mitra, who was previoulsy the ADG, CID, went first to the CID headquarters, followed by the state secretariat and finally to the police headquarters.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Manas Bhuniya, who contested this year's election from his constituency Sabang, has appealed to the EC to monitor the ex-commissioner as he felt he could be active despite being removed, said local daily reports.

Oneindia News