Kolkata, April 12 (IANS) Intensifying their protest against alleged "rigging" of the Cooch Behar Lok Sabha seat by the ruling Trinamool Congress, BJP leaders on Friday held a sit-in inside the chamber of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), demanding deployment of Central forces in all booths for the remaining phases of the Lok Sabha polls.
They alleged that many people, including women, were aprevented from voting by Trinamool Congress-backed miscreants, with the police remaining asilent spectator during the first phase of polling in West Bengal on Thursday.
State Bharatiya Janata Party leaders initially protested in front of the CEO's office and later they met CEO Aariz Aftab and squatted on the floor inside his chamber.
"You defer the elections, if you do not have adequate forces. Central forces must be deployed in all the booths," party leader Mukul Roy told Aftab during the protest, accusing the Trinamool of indulging in "rampant rigging"in Cooch Behar.
Roy, who had switched from the Trinamool to the BJP, demanded an order from Aftab's office regarding the deployment of Central forces in all the polling booths by tonight.
Sporadic incidents of violence were reported from the constituency in which an EVM was smashed and an opposition candidate was heckled and his car damaged.
The saffron party had urged the Election Commission to declare "all the polling booths in the state as super sensitive" and also to announce "Bengal a sensitive state".
Meanwhile, a delegation of the Left parties on Friday demanded a re-poll at 63 booths as they were captured, they alleged, by the Trinamool supporters.
"Sixty-three booths in Cooch Behar were captured by the Trinamool Congress goons and Central forces were mostly deployed in Cooch Behar city which was not sensitive. Most sensitive booths were covered by the police personnel," said All India Forward Bloc leader Naren Chatterjee after meeting the Election Commission officials.
"We demand repolling in all 63 booths as the first phase election in the state was not free and fair," he said.
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