Clashes, firing mar Bengal civic election

While the police firing left one injured who was rushed to hospital in a critical condition, at least 20 others including two policemen and as many women suffered injuries following police baton charge at five places in the city and elsewhere in the districts.
The high-voltage polling began at 7 am and ended at 3 pm, with the opposition Trinamool Congress (TMC) blaming the state election machinery for Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) tampering and malfunctioning. All eyes are also on the 141-ward Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) which the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC has vowed to wrest from the Left.

However, contrary to the previous civic polls that saw at least 25 deaths due to violence on a single day, the present edition of civic elections was free of incidents of killing. Nonetheless,  there were clashes between CPM and TMC activists, specially in Maldah, Burdwan and Hoogly districts.

According to reports, EMVs in a number of wards at Bandel, Arambagh and Kolkata failed to function, leading to suspension of the polling for several hours.

At Paluli, in the city's southern fringe, a police constable deputed from Tripura on poll duty had opened fire to prevent a clash,injuring one person.

In Burdwan, nine persons, including two policemen and a TMC candidate, were injured when TMC and CPM activists clashed  in Jamuria municipality.

The two sides, police said clashed while voting was on at Sripur. When police reached the spot, stones were thrown at them and two of their jeeps damaged. Several bombs were also hurled during the clash.

Sripur police station officer-in-charge Saikat Ray, another policeman, Trinamool candidate Sadhan Chandra Ray and six villagers were injured in the incident. The arsonists dispersed after police resorted to lathicharge and six people were detained.

In the city, clashes were reported from four wards following which Rapid Action Force (RAF) had to be deployed. Repolling has been ordered in three wards on June 1. Incidents of bomb throwing were reported from Hoogly, Howrah and Maldah districts and reinforcements were rushed to restore the law and order.