West Bengal Governor sends sealed envelope to SEC after failure to visit Raj Bhavan

“West Bengal Governor C. V. Ananda Bose has sent a sealed envelope to State Election Commissioner Rajiva Sinha after the latter failed to meet him at Raj Bhavan,” an official said on July 5.

“West Bengal Governor C. V. Ananda Bose has sent a sealed envelope to State Election Commissioner Rajiva Sinha after the latter failed to meet him at Raj Bhavan,” an official said on July 5.

Mr. Sinha reasoned that he was very busy with election work and would not be able to visit Raj Bhavan to meet the Governor.

"The Governor had asked the SEC to come to Raj Bhavan to discuss the recent incidents of poll violence. But Sinha did not visit him, stating that he was busy with election work. Following this, Governor Bose sent a sealed envelope, which contains sensitive documents, to the SEC," the official told PTI, without divulging anything about the contents of the documents. Repeated calls to Mr. Sinha went unanswered.

Ananda Bose had on Monday given Mr. Sinha 48 hours to rein in panchayat poll violence. The Governor has visited affected areas in Canning, Bhangar and Basanti in South 24 Parganas district and Dinhata and Sitai in Cooch Behar district in the northern part of the State.

Several people have been killed and many injured in poll violence in the State over the last one month.

Around 5.67 crore people are eligible to cast their votes in the three-tier panchayat elections in the State on July 8 for nearly 74,000 seats in zilla parishads, panchayat samitis and gram panchayats.