Mamata lodged a specific compliant against the chief minister with the Election Commission saying that the language Bhattacharjee was using was extremely provocative where he has been threatening the Opposition constantly at his campaign meetings.

The complaint with the Commission lodged late on Sunday was specifically against the CM because Mamata alleged that Bhattacharjee also as home minister or the police minister was providing leadership where voters are being terrorized in Singur, Nandigram, Nanur and Lalgarh. She alleged that Bhattacharjee was instigating CPI (M) cadres to launch attacks against Opposition workers and supporters. The CPI (M) was using the police to bring villages under its control, which pointed to the Left’s lack of confidence she added.

The way he was going about this had vitiated the political ambience of Bengal. Along with the complaint she has asked for the appointment of a special observer from the Commission for the Lok Sabha polls in the state. She pointed out that such a special observer was appointed in 2004 general elections but his report was never made public. She wanted the report to be made public. Apart from a special observer there should be paramilitary forces for the elections, she added.

The compliant against Bhattacharjee stems especially from what the CM said during a public rally on Saturday. Referring to the proposed chemical hub in Nayachar he had warned the Opposition and said “Let me see how strong the Opposition is. “We have tolerated a lot and we will not tolerate anymore”. Mamata construes this as a threat and has said that the Leftists could always resort to political criticism but flexing political muscle is not acceptable. She was referring to state transport minister Subhas Chakraborty threatening to beat up the Lalgarh agitation leader Chhatradhar Mahato and put him in jail. She felt that such statements were not expected in a democracy. This disturbs internal security and could disrupt communal harmony.

The complaint to the EC also says that the state’s Chief Secretary, the Director General of Police and the Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) were behaving like CPI (M) cadres and should be removed.

On the flip side, the AICC member in-charge of West Bengal K Keshava Rao trained his guns on the transport minister for threatening Mahato. Rao said that the Election Commission should intervene in the case of Subhas Chakraborty as it had done in the case of Varun Gandhi. Rao was passing through Bengal.