Civic polls in Bengal: Violence mars civic polls that see turnout over 70%

Elections to Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation witnessed incidents of violence right from the word go. It has been alleged that the ruling Trinamool had brought in “outsiders” (people from other areas) to rig the elections. At AC Block, violence broke out around 8 am when a group of youths threatened the voters who had queued up at booth 426. Later, they reportedly entered the booth to cast chappa (fake) votes.

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Police arrived and chased away around 15 people from the booth. In the ensuing melee, a scuffle broke out that led to the EVM being damaged. “Outsiders had come to the booth to rig the polls. There was also no resistance from polling agents of other parties,” said the presiding officer of the booth. Samiran Sengupta, the election agent of the booth, however, claimed: “We had resisted but were beaten and thrown out of the polling station.”

CPM’s mayoral candidate, Asim Dasgupta, claimed the police was not doing its duty properly. “These troublemakers should be arrested and not merely chased away,” he said at booth 335 in Salt Lake.

At Karunamoyee Housing Estate in Salt Lake’s ED Block, two reporters and a photojournalist of The Sunday Express were beaten up and pushed out before the CPM camp was razed and its supporters beaten up by alleged outsiders.

At BD Park, seven bombs were hurled. A dissident Trinamool candidate, who is contesting the polls as an Independent from Ward 41, was injured by a bomb splinter. At BD Block’s booth 422, polling agent Pijush Shantikari was beaten up.

At booth 344 of Ward 33, within the campus of Administrative Training Institute (ATI), presiding officer Santosh Mondal admitted that some trouble was caused by outsiders. “Outsiders had come and tried to create trouble. I have informed my sector officer,” he said.

P K Sen, a septuagenarian resident of AC Block, said such incidents had never taken place in Salt Lake. “When I got up in this morning, I saw so many people gathered outside. They who were not residents of this area. I wondered what was happening. We locals were scared and thus, decided to go together in a group to vote,” he added.

“Then I saw a miscreant dragging and beating someone and pulling him towards the polling booth. I asked him what was he doing? Was he trying to get a promotion from Didi? Inside the polling booth, I was roughed up and pushed by these hooligans. I have lived here for 40 years but never seen anything like this. Even at the height of CPM’s hooliganism, it wasn’t this bad. Salt Lake is finished,” said Sen.

In Asansol’s Ward 14, while two persons were injured in gunfire, one was hurt by a bomb splinter. A gang of alleged outsiders reportedly took over the booths at Kalla Primary School and start chasing away voters. Eyewitnesses said while these offenders were leaving the school, they opened fire and hurled bombs on voters who were still waiting there. The three injured were identified as Rahul Hena, Sukhlal Karmakar and Raja Mullick.

Again, in Ward 11 of Jamuria, BJP supporters alleged that Trinamool had rigged booth 3. In protest, BJP supporters attacked a police vehicle. Police resortee to lathicharge to disperse the mob.

CPM leaders alleged that all booths in Ward 5 were captured by Trinamool cadres and that ink was put on the fingers of legitimate voters before they were made to leave.

Veteran CPM leader Bansagopal Chowdhury has lodged a complaint with the district magistrate, alleging that bombs were hurled near Damodarpur F B school in Ward 4. Moreover, state Minister Swapan Debnath was seen in the area to oversee polling, in violation of the model code of conduct.
Incidents of violence were also reported from several booths of Ward 91 in Ranigunj.

At Murshidabad, Congress candidate Ranadip Ghosh was allegedly abducted by Trinamool workers as he came to cast his vote for a panchayat samity bypoll at Talibpur. State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury later held a sit-in demonstration in front of the Salar police station, demanding that Ghosh be traced.
At Siliguri, the picture was slightly different. At Batasi area of Nakshalbari, outsiders attempted to capture a booth, While the presiding officers could not stop it, Opposition members forced these outsiders to leave.

At Bally, Trinamool workers allegedly stood in front of EMVs and forced voters to vote for the party. At Belur, Congress candidate from Ward 61, Sanjeev Bansal, was allegedly attacked by Trinamool cadres.

Senior CPM leader Gautam Deb announced that the Left Front has called a 12-hour bandh at Rajarhat-Bidhannagar area on Monday in protest against the alleged malpractices and violence. Besides the bandh, Left Front will hold rallies and demonstrations across the state on Monday in protest against the alleged rigging at several wards.

The polls are a precursor to next year’s Assembly polls in Bengal when arch rivals Trinamool Congress and Left Front will be pitted against each other.