BJP fact-finding committee submits report on Bengal poll violence

New Delhi [India], July 26 (ANI): The BJP fact-finding committee constituted by party president JP Nadda to probe the West Bengal poll violence presented its report to the the party high command on Wednesday.
The committee reported that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her TMC party and "their alliance with criminal hooligans, biased administration, and colluding police created a conspiracy to ensure the victory of TMC."
It stated that "Rural Bengal is now highly terror-driven, primarily instigated by the Trinamool Congress local goons and supported & buttressed by a complicit West Bengal Police."
The ruling party...forcibly stopped non-TMC candidates especially BJP candidates in filing nominations. If candidates succeeded in filing nomination, they were threatened or compelled to withdraw the nomination.
If the candidates did not withdraw then an open threat was issued saying that no campaigning should be done by those candidates. If they campaigned the children and women at their homes would be abducted and their houses would be attacked or ransacked, and it was apparent in many places that such an attack actually happened, the BJP fact-finding report stated.
Moreover, the report stated that during election, the candidate supported by the opposition party were attacked and a situation of fear was created for them.
Many BJP supporters were killed or brutally injured on the morning of polling day to scare the voters. Furthermore, those who voted for a BJP-supported candidate were attacked, their houses were damaged and were physically assaulted, the report mentioned.
The BJP committee report also said that many winning candidates were not provided with victory certificate. In many cases, it was seen that if they got the victory certificate, they were forced to join TMC as a precondition for the issuance of such certificate, the report added.
Many family members of the BJP candidates were kidnapped and forced to vote for TMC candidate, the report said adding that the complaints of non-TMC candidates were not taken or registered and they were threatened to compromise.
The committe further mentioned that during the course of their visit many women begged the committee members to save them as they are threatened by "TMC workers" that a "new khela" will take place.
The report also said that whenever a tense situation erupted, BDO and the officers in charge were either found missing or unresponsive in order to facilitate mayhem by the TMC candidates and their goons.
The committee noted that most of the women candidates, their family members, and their supporters who were targeted belong to the marginalized section of society and were belonging to SC or ST category. 
The Fact-Finding Committee suggested that all the cases should be investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) under the monitoring of the Calcutta High Court. Moreover, they have suggested that all the bomb blast cases need to be referred to NIA for investigation.
The BJP committee had Ravi Shankar Prasad as its Convenor and Satya Pal Singh, Rekha Verma, Brij Lal and Rajdeep Roy as its members.
The West Bengal panchayat polls held on July 8 in which the ruling TMC won by a landslide, was marred with widespread violence, looting of ballots papers and rigging. There were also reports of booth capturing, damaging of ballot boxes and assault of presiding officers from several districts such as Murshidabad, Cooch Behar, Malda, South 24 Parganas, North Dinajpur and Nadia. (ANI)