Farce is a small word to express what happened at Diamond Harbour in the name of elections, said BJP and CPI(M) candidates Abhijit Das and Pratik ur Rehman contesting against Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee even as reports of rampant violence surfaced in from most of the nine constituencies that went to polls in the seventh and final phase of polling on Saturday.
Rate and frequency of intermittent violence and alleged booth capture was such that by 2 pm the Election Commission of India was flooded with about 1,800 complaints with most number of them 450 each pouring in from Diamond Harbour and Dum Dum alone. The EC sources said they would consider re-polling some booths after going through the complaints.
Amidst stray violence, allegations and counter allegations, Bengal witnessed comparatively sluggish polling that stopped at 69.9 per cent at 5 pm. The EC sources however said the polling percentage could go up by a few percentage points till 6 pm as there were long queues of voters outside the polling booths in many places.
Reports trickling in showed about 70.41 per cent voters had cast their votes at elite Jadavpur whereas 67.60 per cent voters had exercised their franchise at Dum Dum while 72.87 per cent people had voted at Diamond Harbour.
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The BJP candidate was literally chased away by the TMC men when he went there after receiving complaints of booth jamming, sources said.
Polling was not so brisk in view of intermittent violence at Mathurapur, Basirhat, Barasat, Kolkata North and South seats too. "How will our men come and vote … instead of the central forces it is the TMC goons who have been engaged in 'area domination' for the past couple of days … they have warned voters against venturing out … in many areas voters' ID cards have been snatched and confiscated by the TMC goons," said Khalilur at Diamond Harbour.
Reports of violence came in from Sandeshkhali which erupted once again when BJP supporters resorted to brick-batting inviting a brief tear gas and lathi-charge after alleged motorbike-born TMC goons attacked locals who were going to cast their votes. Police-public clashes were seen at various places including Bermajur, Kanimari, Boyarbari, Rajbari and Agarhati of Sandeshkhali Assembly segment, sources said.
Down south Sandeshkhali-like situations erupted at Canning Assembly segment of Mathurapur parliamentary constituency where hundreds of BJP supporters clashed with the police --- after TMC supporters stopped them from voting --- necessitating a lathi-charge, sources said.
In a grim reminder of 2023 panchayat elections TMC and Indian Secular Front members fought with bombs and brickbats at Bhangar area of Jadavpur leaving several persons injured, sources said adding sluggish polling rate in these areas were due to such intermittent bombing.
Reports of violence and booth capture also filtered in Ganguli Bagan where CPI(M) agents were beaten up by alleged TMC men. At Dum Dum, Baranagar TMC men attacked and ransacked BJP and CPI(M) party offices, sources said. BJP's Sajal Ghosh --- who is contesting in a tri-cornered Assembly by-election from Kamarhati --- was also gheraoed by TMC men when he went to find out reports of booth capturing.
The TMC has the biggest stake in the final phase of polling as it won all the nine constituencies in the 2019 general elections.
There were more reports of violence because there was more resistance this time round from the opposition BJP and the Left at various places like Dum Dum, Basirhat, Jadavpur and Diamond Harbour psephologist BN Chakrabarty said.
