As 107 municipalities in West Bengal went to the polls on Sunday, widespread incidents of violence, rigging, booth capturing and malpractices were reported from across the state, including in North 24 Parganas, Tamluk, Kanthi, Kamarhati, Kharagpur and Murshidabad.
BJP state president Sukanta Mazumdar was beaten up allegedly by the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) goons while he was visiting one of the municipalities in his Lok Sabha constituency in Balurghat. Media too was not spared from the violence that was unleashed allegedly by the TMC goons. Local Bengali news media and several journalists and camerapersons came under attack.
The Daily Guardian was present in Bongaon, one of the major municipalities in North 24 Parganas district, which reported widespread violence, booth jamming and rigging.
At 9 am, ward number 13in the Bongaon municipality reported massive booth jamming and rigging allegedly by the local TMC candidate Mousumi. The three booths in this ward of Bongaon municipality were captured and massive rigging had taken place. By around 10 am, almost 70% votes were polled in this ward allegedly by TMC goons.
Just after 10 am, when voters started arriving at the booth, they were being turned away by saying that their votes were already cast.
Similar incidents of booth capturing and rigging allegedly by Ward number 12’s TMC candidate Tumpa Roy in the Bongaon municipality, were reported. Voters from this ward alleged to this correspondent that their votes were being cast by the TMC goons and they were being turned away.
The TMC candidate, Krishna Roy from Ward number 11 in the same municipality had allegedly beaten the BJP candidate, Deeptendu Bairaghi, who had to be admitted to hospital.
Bombs, and guns were brazenly being allegedly used by TMC candidates.
Bombs were hurled in Ward number 1 in Bongaon, where voting was briefly stopped for some time. Local police sources from Bongaon told The Daily Guardian that major factionalism within two units of the TMC led to bombs and gunshots being fired on each other at several places in Bongaon.
The BJP alleged that TMC led goons had stalled voting at several places in Bongaon. This correspondent was present at several wards of Bongaon municipality where he witnessed widespread violence outside polling booths. This correspondent witnessed how goons allegedly belonging to the TMC were roaming around the entire town on bikes and converging outside polling booths and at times intimidating voters.
At 3 pm, when this correspondent was present outside polling booth numbers 62, 63, 64, and 61, around 100 goons tried to break into the polling booths for rigging. The BJP candidate Swati Roy protested and asked the police officer in-charge of the polling station to call for force. The force was called, which arrived some 15 minutes later. Until then the local voters protested and fought with the goons to stop the rigging.
In fact, the BJP alleged that the TMC carried out widespread violence across the state throughout the day. Even police personnel posted for polling duty were attacked and several of them were injured.
This poll related violence has led the BJP to call for a state-wide bandh on Monday.
West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar summoned the State Election Commissioner after reports of massive violence and malpractices were reported.
The State Election Commission had earlier told the Calcutta High Court that it was capable to hold free, fair and violence free elections and that it did not require the support of central forces.
More than 90 lakh voters of Bengal cast their votes on Sunday and the result will be declared on 2 March.