The 12-hour Bengal bandh called by the BJP — to protest against the alleged “rampant violence and booth capturing” in Sunday’s electionsto 108 municipal boards -— evoked mixed response with most of the establishments both government and private working normally.
While the State secretariat at Nabanna, and the Information Technology sector reported normal attendance besides markets remaining for most part of the day in South Bengal there some response to the bandh calling North Bengal where the BJP won maximum parliamentary seats in 2019 general elections.
The police had hard time removing obstructions put by the BJP workers at various railway stations causing some delay in train timing inNorth 24 Parganas, Hooghly and other areas. A large posse of BJP workers led by Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari blocked roads at Nandigram East Midnapore.
Some BJP leaders like Meena Devi Purohit, Sajal Ghosh, Kalyan Chowbey, MLAs Shankar Ghosh and Anando Roy Burman were detained and later released by the police. State BJP president and MP Sukanto Majumdar led a rally at Balurghat in North Bengal.
Meanwhile, State Election Commissioner Saurab Das on Monday briefedGovernor Jagdeep Dhankhar who summoned him following allegations of widespread violence on Sunday. The SEC earlier said that it had received about 800 complaints of booth level violence. State DGPhowever said that all the complaints were addressed and no major issuewas created during the elections.