By-elections in four Assembly seats in West Bengal were marked by sporadic violence and charges of rigging by Trinamool Congress supporters. According to the BJP candidates, Trinamool Congress activists attacked and prevented them from moving about in the constituencies even as bogus voting was resorted to in the four Assembly seats of Maniktala, Bagdah, Dakshin Ranaghat and Raiganj. They complained that the 75 companies of Central forces were not found during the polls.
In Maniktala, an Assembly seat within Kolkata, BJP candidate Kalyan Chaubey, who is also the AIFF (All India Football Federation) president, was seen being heckled with “go back” slogans and a mob of Trinamool Congress supporters chased his car. In a press conference in the evening, the BJP candidate was visibly disturbed and threatened to move the High Court against “the election fraud perpetrated by the Trinamool Congress.”
Binay Kumar Biswas, the Bagdah candidate, said: “I was stopped from visiting the booths after I got complaints that BJP workers were being beaten up by TMC goons.”
BJP’s Ranaghat Dakshin candidate Manoj Kumar Biswas alleged that BJP camp offices in some areas had been ransacked by the Trinamool Congress supporters.
Both BJP candidates Manoj Kumar Biswas and Binay Kumar Biswas claimed they were not allowed to visit some booths.
The Trinamool Congress denied the allegations and dubbed them as “baseless”. Party spokesperson Santanu Sen said: “These were just excuses since the BJP had understood that it is going to lose in all the four seats.
The BJP has lodged a complaint with the Election Commission against these incidents.
Three of the constituencies – Maniktala in Kolkata, Ranaghat Dakshin, and Bagdah in North 24 Parganas – are located in the southern part of the State.
The fourth Assembly constituency, Raiganj, is situated in north Bengal’s Uttar Dinajpur district.
There are around 10 lakh electorates in the four Assembly segments.
The BJP bagged Ranaghat Dakshin and Bagdah seats in the 2021 Assembly polls. Raiganj was won by the saffron camp in the last Assembly elections.
The Maniktala seat was secured by the Trinamool Congress in 2021 but it became vacant after former State Minister Sadhan Pandey died in February 2022.
Despite the BJP winning the other three seats in 2021, the MLAs later switched to the Trinamool Congress.
The bypolls were necessitated as Krishna Kalyani from Raiganj, Biswajit Das from Bagdah and Mukut Mani Adhikari from Ranaghat Dakshin gave up their seats to contest the Lok Sabha elections.
An Election Commission official said that a voter turnout of 62.71 per cent was recorded till 5 pm in the four Assembly constituencies in West Bengal. Raiganj witnessed the highest turnout at 67.12 per cent, followed by Ranaghat Dakshin at 65.37 per cent, Bagdah at 65.15 per cent and Maniktala at 51.39 per cent.
According to Election Commission officials, turnout may increase further as queues were observed outside polling booths.
The counting of votes will take place on July 13.
