Fifth phase of polls peaceful in Bengal, stray violence reported in 2 districts

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) is contesting 291 of the state’s 294 seats this year, leaving the three hill seats of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong to the two factions of the GJM that are supporting chief minister Mamata Banerjee in the other seats of north Bengal.

Polling in Bengal’s 45 assembly segments in six districts was held peacefully in the fifth phase on Saturday, barring some stray violence reported mostly from the districts of Nadia and North 24 Parganas.

Women show their voter ID cards as they stand in a queue to cast their vote at a polling station during the 5th phase of West Bengal assembly polls, amid a surge in Covid-19 cases across the country at Ranaghat in Nadia on Saturday. (PTI PHOTO.)

Polling in East Burdwan in south Bengal and the three north Bengal districts of Kalimpong, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri was held smoothly. Till 5 pm, 78.36 % votes were polled in the six districts, the Election Commission (EC) said in a statement.

The total number of voters and candidates in the fifth phase was 4,57,56,282 and 1259 respectively.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) is contesting 291 of the state’s 294 seats this year, leaving the three hill seats of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong to the two factions of the GJM that are supporting chief minister Mamata Banerjee in the other seats of north Bengal.

Unlike the fourth phase held on April 10, in which an 18-year-old youth was murdered and four men were killed in firing by central armed police forces (CAPF) during an alleged attack at Sitalkuchi in north Bengal, there was no report of any death or police firing on Saturday.

Of the eight phases, the fifth witnessed the biggest electoral exercise amid rising Covid-19 cases and deaths. The EC deployed 853 companies of CAPF on Saturday.

The EC thanked voters for following Covid-19 protocols and said women turned up in large numbers at the 15,789 polling stations.

Allegations of attack and intimidation were raised by the TMC and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at Bidhan Nagar (Salt Lake), Rajarhat-New Town, Kamarhati, Baranagar, Hingalganj and Panihati in North 24 Parganas and Shantipur, Kalyani, Ranaghat North West and Ranaghat South in Nadia district.

Of the 45 seats that went to the polls, 21 are reserved for scheduled caste (SC) candidates. Most of the violence was reported from these reserved constituencies. Incidentally, both BJP and TMC are trying to secure the support of Dalit Hindu voters, especially the Rajbanshis in north Bengal and the Namasudras in south Bengal.

The BJP, which has sworn to oust the TMC government by winning more than 200 seats, has made an array of promises for the Dalit communities in its election manifesto. These include citizenship for the Matuas, who are a part of the bigger Namasudra community. The Matuas came to India from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) as refuges after Independence and the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War to escape religious persecution.

Gayeshpur in the Kalyani reserved constituency in Nadia witnessed several small clashes between TMC and BJP supporters.

BJP Lok Sabha member from Bongaon in North 24 Parganas and leader of the Dalit Matua community Shantanu Thakur visited Gayeshpur and alleged that TMC supporters indulged in electoral malpractice but the local police looked the other way. “TMC workers also intimidated our voters,” he said. TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said the allegations were baseless.

At Shantipur in Nadia district, the family of an 18-year-old boy alleged that he sustained a bullet injury when BJP workers opened fire. BJP Lok Sabha member and assembly poll candidate Jagannath Sarkar said, “The attack was a fallout of an old dispute between two local factions of the TMC. Our workers had nothing to do with it.” Local police did not comment on the alleged attack.

At Chakdah in Nadia district, Koushik Bhowmick, an independent candidate, was arrested by the police for allegedly carrying an improvised single-shot pistol. “The pistol was left by one of the criminals who intimidated me and the BJP’s polling agents. I only collected it and gave it to the police,” said Bhowmick. The EC sought a report on this incident.

BJP state vice-president and candidate from Kamarhati in North 24 Parganas, Raju Banerjee, alleged that he sustained an injury in his left arm and chest when brickbats were hurled at his car. The TMC’s Kamarhati candidate and former minister Madan Mitra could not be contacted as he was unwell.

At Bidhan Nagar, BJP candidate the TMC’s former town mayor Sabyasachi Dutta alleged that he was gheraoed by the outgoing TMC lawmaker Sujit Bose’s followers. Bose dismissed the allegations saying Dutta was making up stories after sensing defeat.

In north Bengal, of the 13 seats that went to the polls in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri districts, eight are reserved for SC candidates. The Rajbanshi community has a sizeable presence in this region. The TMC could not win even one of the six assembly constituencies in the hill districts of Darjeeling and Kalimpong in the last state polls held in 2016.

At Dabgram-Phulbari in Jalpaiguri district, tourism minister Gautam Deb was pitted against the BJP’s Sikha Chatterjee, a councillor at Siliguri Municipal Corporation.

In the high-profile Siliguri seat, former city mayor Asok Bhattacharya, who served as Bengal’s urban development and municipal affairs minister for 20 years during the Left era, contested against BJP’s Shankar Ghosh, who was a prominent CPI(M) youth front leader till he switched sides before the polls. “Polls in Siliguri were held peacefully in keeping with the city’s tradition,” Bhattacharya said on Saturday evening.

In East Burdwan district, which is considered the rice bowl of Bengal, five of the eight seats that went to the polls are reserved for the SC community. No violence was reported from anywhere.

At Dum Dum, minister Bratya Basu, a noted thespian and playwright, contested against the saffron camp’s Bimal Shankar Nanda, a professor who made his debut in electoral politics.

The Covid-19 pandemic cast its shadow on the ongoing polls. In Murshidabad district, the Congress candidate at Samserganj and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) candidate of Jangipur died of Covid-19 this week. The polls, which were scheduled on April 26, were adjourned by the EC on Saturday.

With 6,910 new Covid-19 cases and 26 deaths being recorded on Friday, the total number of cases since the first outbreak in Bengal went up to 6,43,796. Till Friday night, 10,506 people have died, according to the state health department.

On Friday, the EC imposed a ban on all forms of physical campaigning from 7 pm to 10 am in view of the rising number of cases after the TMC told the chief electoral officer at an all-party meet that the last three phases should be clubbed together.

Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha, who is now the TMC vice-president, on Saturday said, “The BJP is saying that Mamata Banerjee wanted the last three phases to be held together out of fear of losing the polls. This is absurd. More phases means a party gets more time to reach out to voters. It is the BJP that wants time for campaign.”