West Bengal saw a relatively peaceful poll on Saturday, however, Election Commission cracked whip on Trinamool Congress MlA Sonali Guha after she was caught on camera allegedly ordering party workers to beat up CPI(M) polling agents. EC ordered an FIR against Guha. The turnout was 78.25 per cent, EC said.
FIRs were registered against two Presiding Officers for allegedly helping a particular party and a TMC candidate for alleged intimidation of voters. The fifth round of the high-voltage Bengal elections for 53 seats spread across Kolkata, Hooghly and South 24 Parganas were marked by sporadic violence.
This comes even as State Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim is in line of BJP’s fire. Firhad Hakim, aka Bobby Hakim, had allegedly compared Kolkata’s Meitabruz area with Pakistan and told a Pakistani journalist interviewing him to “come along and let us take you to mini-Pakistan of Kolkata”.
One of the most trusted lieutenants of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the Urban Development Minister’s name had also got embroiled in the Narada bribe controversy and the Kolkata fly-over crash that killed 26 people.
Though the Kolkata Port constituency from where he is contesting has a sizeable number of minority voters, the BJP had done well here in 2014 elections cutting down Trinamool’s lead to about 3,000-4,000.
The Commission cracked the whip hard at a presiding officer TK Roy at booth number 271 of Arambagh seat directing the RO to remove him and file an FIR against him following reports that he had allowed a Trinamool leader to rig polls. The TMC leader was also arrested.
Arambagh in Hooghly district saw intermittent clashes between Trinamool and the left supporters. N Babu of Chinsurah had to be admitted after he was attacked by alleged left supporters.
Elsewhere at least seven people were hurt at Basanti in Sunderbans area when Trinamool Congress supporters clashed with their RSP supporters forcing the central forces to intervene. Four injured voters, who were attacked by the Trinamool, were hospitalised. Fights also erupted at Kathalberia in Canning sub-division where alleged Trinamool men attacked the central forces which resorted to lathi-charge and fired in the air to dispel the crowd.
Four people, including a boy received bullet injuries when they were caught in a fight between alleged Trinamool and left supporters. Six people were held in the case, police said. Similar clashes broke out at Metiabruz in Kolkata and Arambagh in Hooghly district.
The central forces resorted to lathi-charge at Metiabruz, to dispel a band of alleged Trinamool supporters, who turned violent, after having failed to rig polls.
Saturday’s elections would seal the fate of heavy weights like Mamata Banerjee contesting from Bhawanipore against Congress’ Deepa Dasmunshi and BJP’s Chandra Bose, Ministers and TMC candidates Subroto Mukherjee, Firhad Hakim, Javed Khan and Chief Whip Sobhandeb Chatterjee, Speaker Biman Banerjee, Kolkata Mayor Sobhan Chatterjee and former Minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah.