Lok Sabha Elections 2024: A vengeful daughter and a CM on the warpath amid West Bengal poll violence
Kolkata: She wiped tears from her cheeks and showed her finger with the indelible ink mark in front of the TV cameras. “I pressed the button of the EVM (Electronic Voting Machine) to take revenge for the killing of my mother,” Manju Arhi told journalists after casting her vote at the polling station at Mansa Bazar in Nandigram – one of the assembly segments of Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency of West Bengal, on Saturday.
Manju’s mother, Rathibala Arhi, was murdered Wednesday when she rushed to save her son Sanjay, a local worker of the Bharatiya Janata Party, from an assault by the goons allegedly linked with the Trinamool Congress. Sanjay, who was severely injured, is now at a hospital in Kolkata. “I want a probe by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation). I will not rest till the killers of my mother will be brought to justice”.
Like Manju, Trinamool Congress supremo and the state’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also vowed revenge – for the killing of her party’s worker Moibul Sheikh at Mahishadal, another assembly segment of the Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency, late on Friday. “They again killed one of my workers last night. I will not spare them. We will take political revenge for this,” Banerjee said at a rally in Canning in the Jaynagar Lok Sabha constituency of the state on Saturday. Sheikh was murdered just on the eve of polling in Tamluk.
Not only Tamluk, but the Kanthi, Ghatal, and Medinipur Lok Sabha constituencies, also went to polls on Saturday, along with four others in the state.
Sporadic incidents of violence were reported from several places in the state’s eight constituencies that went to polls on Saturday. But the back-to-back killings of Rathibala Arhi and Moibul Sheikh escalated tension in Tamluk, where the TMC and the BJP accused each other of trying to slow down voting as well as of intimidating voters.
Tamluk, Ghatal, Kanthi, and Medinipur are perceived as the political fiefdom of Suvendu Adhikari, the state BJP heavyweight and the leader of the opposition in the state assembly. The BJP has fielded former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Ganguly in Tamluk against the TMC’s Debangshu Bhattacharya.
Debangshu alleged that two TMC booth agents in Nandigram had been missing since early Saturday and possibly been abducted by the BJP. He also alleged that the BJP led by Suvendu Adhikari had been trying to manipulate the voting. “He (Suvendu) should understand that he could not make his candidates win this way,” said the candidate of the TMC. Ganguly had to face protests by the TMC workers when he went to a booth in Haldia. The TMC workers raised slogans against him. He later staged a sit-in demonstration at Maina to protest against alleged kidnapping of a local BJP leader.
“We are also giving a befitting reply. The TMC has only two tasks – to attack and to file false cases. The TMC is misusing the police,” Suvendu said after casting his voter at a polling booth in Kanthi, where his brother Soumendu is the BJP’s candidate against the TMC’s Uttam Barik. Soumendu was seen engaging in an altercation with some TMC workers near a polling station earlier in the day. Actor-turned-politician Hiranmay Chattopadhyay, the BJP’s bet in Ghatal, alleged that he was blocked by the TMC workers in Keshpur, one of the assembly segments of the constituency, where he demanded repolling in some polling booths. Hiranmay is contesting against Tollywood superstar Deepak Adhikari (Dev).
The BJP’s candidate in Jhargram, Pranata Tudu, and his aides came under attack at a polling station. The BJP alleged that the TMC workers attacked them, resulting in the injury of one of the security personnel of Tudu. The TMC alleged that a woman was injured when one of the security personnel accompanying the BJP candidate hit her.