Left leaders meet EC, complain about TC

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New Delhi, Mar 28 : Targeting their opposition in West Bengal, the Left parties today asked the Election Commission to conduct a thorough probe into the end use of cash worth Rs 57 lakh which was reportedly carried by a Trinamool Congress MP in a private plane four days ago.
"We urged the Commission to enquire into why (Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP) K D Singh was allowed to leave the Delhi airport and take the cash of Rs 57 lakh along with him. Why was the cash not confiscated," CPI(M) leader Nilotpal Basu told reporters after a 45-minute meeting with Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi and two of his top colleagues here.
On March 24, Singh was reportedly allowed to fly in a private plane from Delhi to Guwahati even after the cash was found on him, Basu said, adding that Assam was a poll-bound state where the Trinamool Congress was contesting a large number of seats.
"We are also surprised by his reported claim that this money was legitimately drawn from a bank for his own business purposes. We are unaware of business activities in the present times which require such a major volume of cash movement," Basu said.
The CPI(M) leader, who was accompanied by D Raja (CPI), Abani Roy (RSP) and S P Tiwari (Forward Bloc), questioned as to why the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security officials who had held the Trinamool MP and his associates along with the money, had allowed him to go.
"And, most importantly, why the money itself was not confiscated. We think this is rather strange because even if the source is known, nobody can vouch for the manner of end use", he said.
In a memorandum, the four parties said "therefore, monitoring of the trail of the money found in the possession of Singh and a thorough enquiry of his whereabouts and activities is urgently called for".
Alleging that prominent Congress leader of Kerala Ramesh Chennithala was using a helicopter for poll campaign that was being flown out of a Kerala police ground, Raja said he also drew the EC''s attention and wanted to know about the expenses incurred and how a government helipad was being allowed to be used.
Claiming that Chennithala used the helipad at the Kottayam Police Parade Ground, Raja quoted EC rules and asked "is it not the use of places like police parade ground a violation of electoral laws".
He also demanded an urgent probe into the incident.