Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Tuesday wrote to the Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar accusing Union Home Minister Amit Shah of trying to influence the conduct of Tripura Assembly elections.
The northeastern state will go to polls on February 16 and results will be declared on March 2.
In his letter, Yechury said Congress MP Gourav Gogoi’s has alleged that Shah had secretly met a batch of top officials of the police administration, including the director general of police, and the Election Department on the February 11 during his visit to Tripura for his election campaign.
“At a time, when all the stakeholders including the electors in general are very much worried about violence-free fair poll, such secret meeting just three days before the poll date violating the electoral norms has furthered apprehension whether any blue print has been chalked out in this secret meeting to manipulate the election by any means,” Yechury said.
The senior party leader urged the Election Commission to order a high-level investigation into the allegation. He also asked the polling body to remove the officials concerned from election duty and initiate departmental proceedings against them if any prima facie evidence came up against them.
The Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) have formed an alliance to contest the Tripura Assembly elections this time. In the last Assembly elections in 2018, the Bharatiya Janata Party had won a comfortable majority by dismantling the Left Front government of 25 years.
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