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Central Agencies Misused to Defeat TMC: Anwar

Congress MP Tariq Anwar on Saturday said that central agencies were misused during the electoral process in West Bengal. "The way central forces and central agencies were operating in West Bengal was completely biased, one-sided work, and their objective was to defeat TMC in any way possible. For this, all agencies were misused," Anwar told ANI.

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"Even in the counting process, central employees will be involved and not state employees--this is wrong and regrettable," he added.

SC Declines Directions on TMC Plea Over Counting Staff

The Supreme Court on Saturday declined to pass any directions on a plea filed by the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) challenging the Calcutta High Court order, which had rejected its petition against the alleged deployment of only Central government employees as voter counting supervisors in the West Bengal assembly election.

Earlier, Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate Kapil Sibal clarified that the Supreme Court has not merely dismissed Trinamool Congress's petition over the deployment of central government employees for counting of votes, but rather agreed to their contention of implementing the Election Commission's circular. Addressing a press conference in the national capital, Kapil Sibal said that the ECI's circular itself called for deploying both central government and state government employees on the day of counting of votes for the West Bengal Assembly elections.

A special Bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and Joymalya Bagchi was constituted on a Saturday to hear the matter urgently, as vote counting is scheduled to begin on May 4, and the petitioner argued that any delay would render the plea infructuous. (ANI)