West Bengal witnessed one of the most violent Panchayat elections on Saturday. Several incidents of violence were reported from different districts of Bengal. People were found injured, stabbed and dead. Governor CV Ananda Bose took a tour of 24 paraganas and met the injured and listened to their complaints.
BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul said that there were no CCTV cameras at the Polling booths nor there were central force and state police. Different incidences of polling booth vandalism came in lime light. Incidents like throwing away of ballot papers and soaking those with water and setting up fire on ballot papers were also reported along with false voting. Amidst violence people queued up to vote.
Leader of Opposition party demanded to impose President’s Rule. The ruling party was also ready with the question that where were the central forces. CPI(M) state secretary tweeted “Vote is over” with a video of open ballot boxes lying around in field.
State Election commissioner assured to look into the matter of vote tampering and will take a decision on re-poll after he gets all the necessary reports from observers and returning officers. The decision would be taken on Sunday. The death toll raised to more then 12, it includes 8 people from the ruling party TMC and one worker each from BJP, CPI(M), Congress and ISF. Most of the
disturbances took place in Murshidabad, Cooch Behar, South 24 Paragans’s Bhangar and East Mednipur’s Nandigram. Stone pelting and bomb hurling were reported at English Bazar area of Malda.
