Poll violence returned to Bengal as Trinamool Congress-backed criminals on Saturday tended to go on an overdrive to prove the Bengal Chief Minister right. They literally overran the State leaving at least two persons dead, scores, including policemen and children injured even as the second round of the State civic polls for 91 municipalities ended amid unprecedented violence on Saturday.
In an encore of what happened in Kolkata Municipal Corporation elections last Saturday, vehicles load of criminals — armed with bombs and muskets — were ferried allegedly by the ruling party from one municipal area to the other to scare away voters, capture booths and cast proxy votes. This, whereas, the central forces that were rushed in less than 24 hours ago, were taken out for guided tours of historical places in Murshidabad and other areas, sources said.
Violence was extensively reported from places where Trinamool’s strong organisational network was facing challenge from the Opposition outfits. There were comparatively less violence where the ruling party had weaker presence. Maximum bloodshed was reported from places like Nadia-Kalyani, North 24 Parganas where 23 — municipalities were up for the grab, Burdwan-Katwa, Hooghly, Kharagpur.
One person was shot dead at Katwa and another at Titagarh in skirmishes between Congress and the Trinamool Congress cadres. Katwa particularly saw SUVs loads of armed men literally plowing up the town firing and bombing at will. Similarly, criminals virtually took control of municipal areas in Nadia, Hooghly and North 24 Parganas. At Titagarh in North 24 Parganas a man was shot dead while at Kalyani to voters received bullet injuries while they were trying to save a former Minister from goons.
like on last Saturday, a police sub-inspector Dinabandhi Barui was severely injured when Trinamool men threw bomb at him. He was shifted to Kolkata in a serious condition. Another lady constable received grievous injuries at Kalyani in Nadia. At Gangarampur a former State Minister was injured when he was attacked by Trinamool men while trying to resist booth-capturing.
Reports of criminals taking control of booths at gunpoint came in from North and South Dum Dum, Bhatpara, Kamarhati, Birati, Bansberia, Chinsurah, Keota and other places, police source said expressing inability to control the raiders. At Rajpur-Sonarpur municipality actor-turned BJP leader Rupa Ganguli was heckled by the Trinamool men when she challenged some of them for false voting. At Kharagpur Trinamool men fired shots in the air to scare away voters. At Barangar a former State Minister’s relatives were attacked by Trinamool goons while reports of presiding officers being beaten up came in from many places like Bhatpara, Basirhat and Barasat in North 24 Parganas.
“Out of about 4,500 booths where about 74 lakh voters would cast their votes about 50 percent booths had been marked highly sensitive and the remaining 50 percent were sensitive. Notwithstanding the central forces were allowed to sit idle. This is a farce and not a poll” said Congress leader Adhir Chowdhury. While the BJP said “it is a daylight murder of democracy in Bengal where no one is allowed to vote,” CPI(M)’s Sujan Chakrbarty said “Trinamool has reduced the voting into a farce.”
Curiously after the last Saturday’s flip-flop when the State Election Commission which had upwardly revised its figure of total polled votes after two days from 62 to 69 percent the poll panel remained mysteriously quite in terms of giving intermittent reports on polling rates. The KMC polls had seen proxy votes had caused polling rates to go as high as 140 percent.
There was literally no updating on polling rate between 11 am and 2 pm. “The SEC however later said till 2 pm there has been a polling of 61 per cent.” The civic elections where about 40 percent of State’s electorate was to exercise their franchise was seen as “semi-final” before the next year’s civic elections. Banerjee wanted to counterbalance the corruption charges against her Government by winning maximum municipalities ahead of next year’s State polls, said sephologist BN Mukherjee claiming she could even pre-pone the State polls depending upon the results of the civic elections.