Clashes in Bengal despite security

Shubhadeep Choudhury

Tribune News Service

Kolkata, May 19

The General Election, which threatened to degenerate into utter chaos in West Bengal, ended in the state on a messy note with incidents of violence reported from across various constituencies.

A total of 710 companies of central forces were deployed by the Election Commission to prevent any untoward incident during the last phase. Byelections were also held for three Assembly constituencies besides voting for the nine Lok Sabha seats.

Despite the massive presence of security forces, sporadic incidents of violence took place in several constituencies. At Raidighi under Mathurapur Lok Sabha constituency, a TMC office was ransacked by alleged BJP supporters. A clash between BJP and TMC supporters also took place at Bhatpara Assembly constituency which went to bypolls today. The BJP candidate from the seat is Pawan Singh, son of Arjun Singh, who left the TMC recently to become BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Barrackpore. The TMC nominee from Bhatpara is party strongman Madan Mitra.

In Diamond Harbour seat, the car of BJP candidate Nilanjan Roy was vandalised. Roy claimed that supporters of TMC candidate Abhishek Banerjee, sitting MP and nephew of CM Mamata Banerjee, were behind the attack. Anupam Hazra, BJP candidate from Jadavpur, accused women TMC workers of casting proxy votes as they kept their faces covered. In a letter to the EC, the BJP alleged “major problems” in all nine constituencies notorious for communal violence.

Derek O’Brien, leader of TMC in the Rajya Sabha, said, “Central forces, taking orders from the BJP, mercilessly beat up citizens and Trinamool workers.”