73.45% vote in civic body polls

“We are considering repoll at four booths,including one in Howrah,two in Rajarhat and one in Krihnagar area,” said a senior EC official. He said some incidents of violence were reported from Howrah,Bidhanagar and Kolkata.

The CPM complained that a bomb was hurled at the vehicle of Howrah Mayor Mamata Jaiswal,who suffered injuries in the explosion and was hospitalised.

The police said a bomb exploded in front of the mayor’s car in ward number 13 near St Agnes School.

A senior officer of the state Election Commission said,“We have received a complaint from the CPM… We are verifying it.”

The TMC Howrah district committee president and a state minister Arup Roy,however, rejected the charge as baseless. Irrigation minister Rajib Banerjee said,“If that is so,why is the CPM not registering an FIR?”

He said that the allegation was to tarnish TMC’s image and get sympathy,since the CPM was losing political ground after being rejected by voters in every election.

Incidents of violence were also reported from Bidhannagar and at ward 24 in Kolkata. Two groups clashed in both the areas and bombs were allegedly hurled. In Bidhananagr area,TMC men allegedly pulled down the shutter of a polling booth. Police force was rushed to the spot and opened the booth.

Former finance minister and senior CPM leader Asim Dasgupta said,“Our people were beaten mercilessly by the miscreants belonging to the ruling party. Six of our members are critically injured. We want immediate arrest of the culprits.”

Left Front chairman Biman Bose in a statement said,“All elections in the state have become farce.”

However,polling in Murshidbad remained peaceful where,Union minister Adhir Choudhury said,“The administration played a neutral role.”

The election is being viewed as another test of the popularity of the Trinamool Congress-led government after the TMC received an overwhelming mandate in the panchayat elections in July this year.

The main contestants in the civic polls are TMC,Congress,CPI(M)-led Left Front and the BJP.

While the CPI(M) controls the Jhargram municipality and the Howrah Municipal Corporation,Trinamool runs the Midnapore and Krishnagar civic bodies. The Congress controls the Berhampore municipality.