E-Paper
Voting fairly peaceful in West Bengal; TMC worker murdered on Sunday night
More than 14 million electors would decide the fate of 75 candidates in the fourth phase in West Bengal on Monday
Voting in the fourth phase was fairly peaceful in eight Lok Sabha constituencies of West Bengal in the early hours of Monday, with state witnessing a voter turnout of 15.2% till around 9am. While Baharampur registered the highest turnout of 16.9%, Asansol recorded the lowest with 13.03%.
However, situation was slightly tense in East Burdwan district after a Trinamool Congress (TMC) worker was killed late on Sunday night in Ketugram area, just hours before voting began.
Police said the victim, identified as Mintu Sheikh (42), was returning home around 8:30pm on Sunday when goons attacked him.
“They hurled bombs. He was hacked to death. We have arrested two people and investigation is going on,” said an IPS officer of East Burdwan.
Allegations have surfaced that CPIM-backed goons were behind the murder even though the party refuted the charges.
There were no reports of any major untoward incident today, an EC official said.
“We received some stray allegations of polling agents of political parties being stopped from going to booths by rival parties and voters being intimidated in some cases. Those are being looked into. But by and large, voting is going on peacefully in all seats,” said a poll panel official in Kolkata.
More than 14 million electors would decide the fate of 75 candidates in the fourth phase in the eastern state. Polling is being held in eight seats – Baharampur, Krishnanagar, Ranaghat, Bardhaman Purba, Bardhaman-Durgapur, Asansol, Bolpur and Birbhum.
The list of heavyweight candidates includes sitting and expelled MPs such as Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Dilip Ghosh, Mahua Moitra, SS Ahluwalia, world cup-winning cricketers Yusuf Pathan and Kirti Azad, member of a royal family Amrita Roy and actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, among others.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee held several public meetings and roadshows in these seats.
The BJP made deep inroads in the state in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as the party wrested three of the eight seats that are going into polls in the fourth phase, while the TMC won four seats. The Congress won one seat. While the BJP’s vote share was around 39%, the TMC got around 45% and the Congress 7%.
Political observers have said that barring Baharampur, which is a stronghold of Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, all the other seven seats would largely witness a bipolar contest between the TMC and the BJP.
