Amid clashes, 82 per cent polling in West Bengal; 77 per cent in Assam

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 27

The high-stakes Assembly elections in West Bengal and Assam got off to a stormy start on Saturday with reports of violence from several places in Bengal and the overall first-phase voting turnout settling at a high of 82 per cent and 76.89 per cent in the two states.

Amid allegations and counter-allegations by the ruling TMC and rival BJP, Bengal saw polling in 30 constituencies, 26 of which were won by the Trinamool and three by the Left-Congress alliance in 2016.

• Read also: It’s advantage BJP in Phase-I of West Bengal elections 

In Assam, the stakes were higher for the incumbent BJP that had wrested 35 of the 47 segments where polling was conducted.

The first phase saw Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Bengal campaign” from Bangladesh and the BJP hitting back by releasing a purported Mamata audio where she is allegedly heard telling a local leader to return to the Trinamool and help her win the Nandigram seat. The TMC and the BJP led counter-delegations to the Election Commission in Kolkata, accusing one another of malpractices and violence.

TMC’s Sudip Bandopadhyay petitioned the EC against alleged “voter turnout discrepancies and permission to have outsiders as polling agents in booths”.

The BJP’s Bengal election in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya, on the other hand, complained to the EC against the alleged “poll violence perpetrated by the TMC on saffron workers”. The BJP said four of its workers had been killed in the past four days. “We are used to getting assaulted here,” Vijayvargiya said even as the brother of BJP’s Nandigram candidate Suvendu Adhikari alleged that TMC goons had vandalised his vehicle in Contai.

A majority of the first-phase seats in Bengal are in the erstwhile Naxal hotbed of Jangalmahal where 730 companies of central forces stood guard at 10,288 booths across 7,061 locations. The 30 seats are spread across Purulia, Bankura, Jhargram, Paschim Medinipur and Purba Medinipur districts.

Though the EC said the elections in Bengal were largely peaceful with 82 per cent voting till 5 pm (highest of over 82 per cent in East Medinipur), minor skirmishes were reported from various locations, including Kanthi Dakshin in Purba Medinipur where some voters levelled EVM malfunction allegations and Majna where some people alleged that votes were getting cast in favour of a certain party.

The TMC took to Twitter to allege EVM tampering but BJP state chief Dilip Ghosh rebutted the charges saying the Trinamool, “staring at a loss, was crying over EVMs.” The EVMs were replaced at some places. The CM, in her rally at West Midnapore, also made EVM manipulation charges.