The high-tension Bhawanipore by-elections passed off peacefully with little more than 53 percent voter turnout --- a shed higher than 2011 by-polls --- even as the BJP alleged “scientific rigging” by the Bengal ruling outfit Trinamool Congress.
By scientific rigging the BJP apparently meant capturing booths peacefully "simply by jamming them and disallowing genuine voters to come and vote." TMC's Firhad Hakim however said "we don't capture booths ... we have captured the hearts of the people."
Voter turnout in other two constituencies of Shamsherganj and Jangipur in Murshidabad district recorded about 78 percent polling till 5 pm on Thursday.
Amid reports of some stray incidents the elections to Bhawanipore seat passed of peacefully Election Commission sources said adding all the complaints lodged by the opposition outfits were thoroughly scrutinized and issues were resolved amicably.
By 5 pm Bhawanipore from where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is seeking election to the State Assembly recorded 53.32 percent polling. ECI officials said the total percentage could go up by another 3-4 percent.
Similarly till 5 pm Samsherganj witnessed about 78.60 percent voters’ turnout while in neighbouring Jangipur 76.12 percent voters exercised their franchise.
In both the constituencies the total voting percentage could go beyond 80 percent EC sources said. The Congress and the Left are jointly contesting against TMC and the BJP in these two constituencies where elections were withheld in April-May after the Congress and RSP candidates died of corona.
Lodging a complaint with the EC the Congress demanded re-polling in 9 polling stations at Shamsherganj . Both the seats in Murshidabad had been strongholds of the Congress and the Left till the polarization politics ate into their respective vote base allowing the TMC and BJP to gain substantially in these areas.
Though Murshidabad has a sizeable 71 percent minority population sources said BJP could win Jangipur because the urban part of the constituency has a large number of Hindu voters.
Stray incidents of booth jamming --- that the BJP called scientific rigging a coinage used by Mamata Banerjee years ago against the the4n Left Government --- were reported from Bhawanipore in South Kolkata even as BJP candidate Priyanka Tibrewal said “outsiders from neighbouring constituencies have been thronging the booths to stop the genuine voters from voting… I have personally caught a few persons like this.”
The vehicle of Kalyan Chowbey a State BJP leader was attacked byalleged TMC men while he was returning from the Khalsa School booth where the BJP and TMC supporters were involved in fisticuffs.
“On the whole the elections were peaceful and whatever complaints that were received were addressed amicably,” a senior ECI official said.