Amid vengeful repetition of history marked by random bombing and capturing of booths, the Bengal Opposition parties on Sunday demanded countermanding of civic elections.
Sunday saw violence ridden voting with goons taking control of most of the municipalities save the four in erstwhile Darjeeling district in the mountains where political temperature was cooler than what it was in the plains of Raiganj, Domkal and Pujali where more goons than voters traversed the streets. The only departure from the regular gun-and-bomb affair — from Parliament to panchayat polls — was a reported plan by the BJP to bring impeachment motion against State Election Commissioner who remained incommunicado on the issue of rampant electoral violence that left at least a dozen people injured and many bombs and motor bikes seized.
Opposition left, Congress and BJP agitated outside the State Election Commission office after the SEC remained buried within the four-walls of the Commission office before the former two filed a police complaint against a ‘politically biased and servile commission’ for sullying the polls process at the neighbouring Shakespeare Sarani Police Station.
This whereas sources in the BJP said the party would consider bringing impeachment motion against the SEC and called upon the other Opposition outfits to join cause.
The poll process that started briskly in the morning went violent by the noon with gun-totting goons taking over the streets at Raiganj in North Bengal, Domkal in Murshidabad district and Pujali in South 24 Parganas.
“In all the cases they followed the same pattern. They were bike-borne, carried back-packs filled with bombs and wickets,” said a policeman on duty at Pujali refusing to give his name.
“They hurled bombs at will and stopped voters from going to vote,” Behrapmpore MP Adhir Chowdhury said. Suryakanta Mishra the CPI(M) State secretary said the party had withdrawn from poll process at Raiganj as there is no condition to participate in voting. There is no democracy in Bengal. It is history being repeated all the way.”
At Domkal local CPI(M) MlA Anisur Rehman claimed Trinamool candidate Soumik Husein had employed trans-border criminals from neighbouring Bangladesh who robbed the voters of their ID cards in night long operations as the police remained mute spectators. Same cards were used the next day for casting false vote.
BJP State president Dilip Ghosh said Bengal was different from the rest of the country as there was no democracy in the State. “The civic elections are a glaring example of this. The wants countermanding of the elections and a fresh poll,” he said.
Things however remained cooler in Darjeeling hills were elections were held for four boards of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kurseong and Mirik.
While Darjeeling polled 52 per cent, Kalimpong saw 58 per cent voting. The figures for Kurseong and Mirik were 66 percent and 75 per cent respectively. In violence-torn Raiganj 66 per cent voters cast votes hile in Pujali 79 per cent voted whereas at Domkal 78 per cent exercised their franchise. The rate of violence could be gauged from the fact that the average rate of voting in all these places is normally beyond 83 per cent.