။ Lok Sabha Vote, 2009

န Government gearing up for police action in Lalgarh
Kolkata, 4 April : The WB state government is gearing up for a pre-poll offensive in Lalgarh, state home secretary Ardhendu Sen said on Saturday. Reiterating the government stand on Lalgarh, he said: "Police action is necessary for holding peaceful elections in Lalgarh. Without police, there will be no election there and it will appear as if the government is boycotting the polls. We can't allow that."
A high-level meeting was being held at Writers' Buildings on Saturday to formulate the course of police action in Lalgarh. The home secretary said the government's course of action will be made known in the next seven days.
Left Front chairman Biman Bose said on Saturday that the so-called checkposts set up by Chhatradhar Mahato's People's Committee against Police Atrocities at Barabeliachowk and Ramgarg were an assault on democracy. The checkposts have been put up to bar policemen and the ruling party supporters from entering Lalgarh. Reacting to this, Bose said: "This is an infringement on the constitutional rights of citizens."
It is clear that both the Left and the state government are confronted with a huge challenge to conduct elections in Lalgarh, considering that the police and the administration are not being allowed to enter the area. Of the 41 polling stations in the area, police have been able to enter only about 14 of those areas till now. Senior officials are making aerial surveys of the area in helicopters.