Violence in north Bengal pockets, EC seeks report

Kolkata: The second of the seven phases of voting in Bengal saw an uptick in violence, prompting the Election Commission to seek a report on the polling process from the Uttar Dinajpur district magistrate.
Most of the sporadic incidents of violence occurred in the usually violence-prone pockets of Uttar Dinajpur district spread over two constituencies — Darjeeling and Raiganj — prompting the opposition to allege gaps in supervision of polling booths and management of central forces.
Voting was high, with Jalpaiguri recording 82.7%, Raiganj 73.3% and Darjeeling 72.1% polling till 5 pm, but there was a clear-plains-and-hills divide when it came to incidents of violence; most of the violence happened in the plains pockets, with much of the hills witnessing a largely festival-like occasion. Bengal chief electoral officer Ariz Aftab maintained that polling was by and large peaceful except for some stray incidents of violence.
The violence over proxy-voting and booth-jamming started in Chopra, a part of Uttar Dinajpur district voting for the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency. Voters protested after being prevented from entering booth number 120, staging a dharna on National Highway-31 for four hours till central forces arrived and helped them vote.
The four-hour interim saw alleged Trinamool supporters trying to scare them away and engaging in a streetfight with state cops after they took one of the main troublemakers in their custody. Cops burst tear gas shells after the mob hurled bombs and pelted stones.
“Around 100-150 Chopra voters complained that they were not allowed to vote. A large force along with the police observer reached the spot. We had to fire three rounds of tear gas shells,” additional director-general (law and order) Siddhinath Gupta said. There was allegation of EVMs being damaged at booth 112 of Chopra.
Miscreants smashed the windshield of CPM Raiganj candidate Mohammad Salim’s car when he reached a polling booth in Islampur’s Patagarah to stop proxy-voting. Left Front leaders later protested at the state chief electoral officer’s office in the afternoon, demanding re-poll in at least 22 Raiganj booths. “Five Left candidates have been attacked till now, including two on election days (Salim on Thursday and Gobindo Ray in the first phase),” CPM state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra said.
Elsewhere in Raiganj, at the Kata Phulbari booth in Goalpokhor, a television journalist was attacked by a mob at 7.30 a.m. A BJP supporter from Raiganj, Bablu Kumar Saha, was rushed to hospital after being attacked, allegedly by Trinamool workers.
An elderly woman at 25/47 polling booth in Upper Bagdogra, within Darjeeling parliamentary constituency, complained that BJP candidate Raju Singh Bishta’s name and his party symbol were covered with a black tape on the EVM. Voting was stalled for about 90 minutes till the problem was sorted out.
But most of the complaints came from Chopra, Islampur and Upper Bagdogra, spread across the Raiganj and Darjeeling constituencies, which suggested a tough fight between rivals. “Chopra, flanked by Bihar on one side and Bangladesh on the other, has always been a sensitive area. There have been several murders in the last one year. I don’t know why central forces were not deployed there,” Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said.
Trinamool Jadavpur candidate and Tollywood actor Mimi Chakraborty added a touch of colour to polling in Jalpaiguri, where she voted at Jalpaiguri Town’s Pandapara Junior Basic School.
The hills saw much less violence but were not incident-free. Kalimpong BJP election agent Topden Tshering Bhutia complained that he was attacked twice and stones were thrown at his car. BJP candidate Bisht complained of rigging in select Darjeeling booths.
The EC ticked off Belakoba forest ranger Sanjay Datta, who went to polling booth 18/231 with his service revolver. “I was on duty. I carried my weapon because I was in uniform. I was keeping a watch on animals straying out of forests on the poll-day,” Datta said.
Jan Andolan Party leader Harka Bahadur Chhetri came under the EC’s scanner for wearing earphones while casting his vote. The EC lodged an FIR against Chhetri and replaced the presiding officer.
There was extra security at the Patleybas community hall, a booth located barely 10 metres from rebel Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Bimal Gurung’s residence. Polling was disrupted at a few booths in Darjeeling and Takdah because of EVM glitches. Hundreds of voters, including senior citizens Sanjay Lakandri and Dilbar Kalikothe, had to wait for one-and-a-half hours for presiding officers to address an EVM snag at 8.30 a.m. at the Jorebungalow community hall; similar reports came in from Peshok and Pokhriabong Bazar.
(With inputs from Dwaipayan Ghosh, Pinak Priya Bhattacharya, Subhro Maitra, Saibal Gupta)