Shubhadeep Choudhury
Tribune News Service
Kolkata, November 25
Barring some stray incidents, bypolls in three Assembly constituencies of West Bengal were largely peaceful today.
Twenty companies of Central forces, assisted by the state police, were deployed to ensure free and fair polling in the state which has got a bad reputation for electoral violence.
At Karimpur, however, state BJP vice-president and party’s candidate for the seat Jay Prakash Majumdar was beaten up by alleged Trinamool Congress (TMC) activists.
TV footage showed Majumdar (63 years) being beaten up and dumped into a bush with a lungi-clad man administering a kick on the left side of Majumdar’s ribcage. The Bharatiya Janata Party later identified nine alleged TMC supporters involved in the assault, including Tarekul Sekh as the one who kicked Majumdar.
Majumdar later said the incident was a clear sign of the “end of democracy” in West Bengal. He claimed that those who assaulted him were false voters who had assembled in the area with the intention of rigging polls.
The EC has sought reports about the incident. In a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, BJP’s chief election convener for West Bengal Mukul Roy alleged that while central forces had been deployed in 73 per cent of the polling booths of Kharagpur Sadar, Trinamool Congress cadres were casting false votes in the remaining 27 per cent booths “with full connivance of the state police”.
Roy also alleged that the police observer deployed by the EC for Kaliaganj constituency remained incommunicado since morning. Only 40 per cent of the booths in Kaliaganj are having presence of the Central forces.
In Kaliaganj, BJP candidate Kamal Chandra Sarkar was seen accompanying his wife to the EVM and showing her which button she should press.
The final poling percentage of all three constituencies is yet to be calculated. Up to 3 pm, Karimpur recorded a poling percentage of 70 per cent followed by 66 per cent in Kaliaganj and 57 per cent in Kharagpur Sadar.
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2rp3cwv
via Today’s News Headlines
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