E-Paper
Bengal rural polls: Revoting underway at 696 polling booths
The re-polling was being held two days after the killing of at least 18 people, allegations of booth capturing, and harassment of poll officials marred the panchayat polls in the state
Revoting was underway at 696 polling booths under enhanced security across West Bengal’s 19 districts on Monday two days after the killing of at least 18 people, allegations of booth capturing, and harassment of poll officials marred the panchayat polls in the state on Saturday.
One of the persons injured on Saturday succumbed a day later, taking the toll from the violence since the election dates were announced on June 8 to 38 even as central forces were deployed on Calcutta high court orders.
A poll official said re-polling was ordered on 696 booths following the violence on Saturday. “Voting started at 7am and will continue until 5pm.”
A bulk of polling booths where re-polling was underway were in Murshidabad (175), followed by Malda (109), Nadia (89), Cooch Behar (53), North 24 Parganas (46), North Dinajpur (42), South 24 Parganas (36) and East Midnapore (31). The counting of votes will be held on Tuesday.
State election commissioner Rajiva Sinha called a meeting on Sunday to review the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress, and Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M)’s demands for re-polling even as sporadic violence continued in parts of north and south Bengal.
Officials said central forces were guarding the polling stations where the re-polling was being held.
Looting of ballot papers and rigging were reported on the polling day across the state except in Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts. Booth-level violence is seeped into the state’s political culture. In 2018, 23 people died in panchayat poll-related violence. Fifteen people died during a multi-phase panchayat election in 2013.
The Congress moved the Calcutta high court seeking action against Sinha for failing to take steps to stop pre-poll violence. The court, which earlier also pulled up Sinha, on June 15 ordered the deployment of 822 companies of central armed police (CAPF) forces for panchayat polls. But only 649 of them could reach the state on time. CAPF were not allegedly deployed in sensitive areas on Saturday.
At least 11 supporters of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) were among those killed on Saturday.
TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said the violence was restricted to areas around just 60 of the state’s 61,636 polling booths. He said the violence was part of a conspiracy against Bengal and the TMC. Ghosh questioned will TMC kill its own men while rejecting calls for President’s rule in Bengal over poll violence.
