As the polling for fifth phase of the Assembly elections in West Bengal began today, an incident of misconduct during the voting occured in Bidhan Nagar. Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Sabyasachi Dutta from the Bidhan Nagar constituency alleged that goons of their opponent party Trinamool Congress stopped him at Nayapatti. He also said that the TMC goons are also stopping the voters even as polling is underway.
Since the commencement of the voting for the Bengal elections, many such incidents have been reported at different places in the state. The TMC and BJP hav ebeen accusing each other of carrying attacks on each others. TMC has been accused a lot many times by the BJP for atttacking their candidates even during the campaigns.
Sporadic incidents of violence were seen soon after the fifth phase of polling commenced on Saturday. The TMC and the BJP continued to spar, with accusations and even stones being hurled.
A woman was seen being beaten up by alleged TMC supporters at Shantinagar in Salt lake area. According to the woman, the TMC supporters were not allowing the BJP supporters to cast their votes.
“Since last night the TMC supporters were threatening us and are saying that if we go out to vote then we will have to face dire consequences after May 2. Then while protesting they abused and assaulted me,” she said.
Soon after the incident Shantinagar turned into a battlefield, with supporters of both parties pelting stones at each other. Neither the police nor the central forces were seen at the spot.
Meanwhile, in Shantipur women were seen agitating in front of CISF personnel as according to them the central forces were allegedly intimidating the voters during the polls.
Voting is now underway at 15,789 polling stations spread across 45 constituencies in West Bengal. The fifth phase of the Assembly elections is witnessing an intense battle in the 13 constituencies of North Bengal, including five in Darjeeling, one in Kalimpong, and seven in Jalpaiguri. The remaining constituencies fall in Nadia, North 24 Parganas and Purba Bardhaman.
