The Election Commission of India (ECI) detained 106 people with criminal records in preventive custody in an overnight crackdown across three districts in West Bengal who were going to the polls in the first phase of the state assembly elections on April 23, officials familiar with the matter said on Monday. Meanwhile, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has filed a PIL in the Calcutta High Court claiming that around 800 of its workers could be detained ahead of the elections on ECI’s directions.
According to senior officials in the office of the state chief electoral officer, the arrests were carried out between Sunday and Monday in Cooch Behar, South 24 Parganas and Murshidabad districts in West Bengal on the directions of the Election Commission of India.
A senior IEC official said: “This is a targeted preventive measure based on specific inputs. The aim is to ensure a polling process free of violence and intimidation. Such measures are part of the standard protocol in sensitive constituencies.”
The official added that the night operation is part of a broader monitoring and enforcement framework that the polling body activated ahead of the first phase of polling. The Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in two stages on April 23 and 29, with 152 electoral districts going to the polls in the first stage and the remaining 142 electoral districts in the second stage, with the results being announced on May 4.
For the first phase, the Commission has deployed 2,193 rapid response teams in all constituencies, with a major focus on sensitive and border areas – Murshidabad, East and West Midnapore and Junglimahal, the official said, adding that district station officers and in-charge officers will face suspension if weapons or explosives are found within their jurisdiction on the voting day.
HT reached out to TMC for a comment, but was unable to get a response.
Meanwhile, TMC MP and senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee approached the Calcutta High Court on Monday seeking its intervention over concerns that nearly 800 TMC workers and leaders may face preventive arrest after being identified following ECI directions. A bench comprising Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen accepted the petition, and the hearing is scheduled for April 22 – the day before the vote on the first phase.
Reacting to the crackdown, BJP spokesperson in West Bengal, Debjit Sarkar, said: “Such action should not be a one-time exercise. It should be so strict as to set a strong example. West Bengal has witnessed shameful incidents in the past elections, including parading of naked women and killings in rural areas. This should stop permanently, and such strict action should ensure that this does not happen again.”
ECI has introduced a new directive to ensure the safety and presence of polling agents also known as Booth Level Agent (BLA) inside booths on voting day. Under the new guidelines, if a polling agent exits the booth and remains absent for more than 30 minutes, central forces will be deployed to locate the missing agent. Bosses were given a specific role in this process: they had to report absences first. The sector officer is then informed, who then alerts the central forces deployed at the booth. If necessary, the police will also be called to trace the agent.
According to IEC officials, the move responds to long-standing complaints that polling agents for certain political parties leave their booths after voting begins and do not return, raising allegations of intimidation and forced removal. They further explained that “the primary purpose of the directive is to determine whether a customer has left voluntarily or was forced to leave, and to ensure that all political parties have their representatives present inside the booths throughout the voting process so that no party can use intimidation to gain an unfair advantage.” While previously the chiefs kept records of agents’ movements, the committee now decided to take a more active role. What action the commission will take if intimidation is proven remains unclear.
