Friday, April 28 2006 18:36 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: Veteran marxist Jyoti Basu today (Apr 28, 2006) said the credit for holding peaceful assembly elections in West Bengal should go to the state government and not to the the Election Commission.

"It is an absolute wrong notion that Election Commission has done a creditable job for peaceful elections in the state," Basu told reporters when asked for his comment on the trouble-free polling in the last three phases of assembly elections in West Bengal. "I have heard that the Election Commission has organized elections in the state with police from outside and other personnel. But the credit of holding peaceful polls will go to the state government, and not to the EC," he said.

The nonagenarian former chief minister claimed that since the Left Front came to power in 1977 it has been given the certificate of holding free and fair elections by the Election Commission.

"We had done a creditable job of holding peaceful elections in West Bengal and not the Election Commission," he said.

Basu said the Left Front would fare even better in this elections comparing to last Assembly polls.