JOIN US3 killed in poll-related incidents in West Bengal
In an unprecedented incident, polling in a large part of the Mandirbazar assembly segment of the Mathurapur Lok Sabha seat was held up after all the EVMs were found malfunctioning following seepage of water in them.
Even as the Election Commission expressed its surprise over the incident and ordered an inquiry, state chief electoral officer Debashis Sen conceded that at least 101 EVMs were found to be damaged in water and order for their replacement was already given. “Polling in Mandirbazar is likely to be held tomorrow subject to irts concurrence from the EC in Delhi,” he said adding that the voter turnout on Wednesday was more than 70 per cent till the last reports came in.
In a tragic incident, a voter was killed and three others were injured when a matador van ploughed through a voters’ queue in Bongaon, while a youth, stated to be a Trinamool supporter, was killed in a clash at Rajarhat on the eastern outskirts of the city in the wee hours. A CPM panchayat samity member was shot dead by miscreants at Canning in South 24 Parganast district while he was returning home after casting his ballot, officials said.
Left Front chairman and CPM Politburo member Biman Bose claimed the elections were largely peaceful despite provocations from the miscreants harboured by the Trinamool, the TMC chief Ms Mamata Banerjee large-scale rigging and booth capturing by the CPM goons and demanded repoll in nearly 50 booths in Barrackpore, Jadavpur and Barasat constituencies.
Prominent voters
Among the prominent voters were union External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, state Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) politburo members Brinda Karat and Biman Bose besides Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee.
Wednesday’s polls saw political rivals trading allegations of rigging and booth capturing while three candidates said they were heckled by rival party workers.TMC nominee from Kolkata North seat Sudip Bandopadhyay got involved in an altercation with CPI-M activists in a booth, but police intervened to defuse the situation while TMC candidate from Barasat Mrs Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar lodged a complaint with the Commission that she was allegedly manhandled by CPM supporters when she protested against ‘booth capturing’ by the Marxists in the constituency.
In retaliation,TMC supporters allegedly heckled and damaged the car of the Forward Bloc candidate from Barasat Sudin hattopadhyay.
Of West Bengal’s 42 seats, 14 went to the polls on April 30 and 17 voted on May 7. Counting will take place on May 16.