In Bengal, polls at Darjeeling’s GTA, Siliguri and 6 municipal seats peaceful

Elections to the Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) in Bengal’s Darjeeling hills, the 22 gram panchayats under the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad in north Bengal and by-polls at six municipal wards in the districts of North 24 Parganas, Hooghly and Purulia were held peacefully on Sunday, state election commissioner S K Das said.

“Polling in all districts was peaceful,” Das said in the afternoon even as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) raised some allegations of violence and rigging against the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in North 24 Parganas and Siliguri. Das said he has sought reports from the police.

Though the rate of polling was initially low everywhere, the average voter turnout stood at around 60% at 3 pm. The government made elaborate security arrangements in all the districts. The results to the polls and by-polls will be announced on June 29.

Though not a single untoward incident was reported in Darjeeling, the GTA polls widened differences among local Gorkha parties, with 277 candidates, of whom a record 178 were independent nominees, contesting the 45 seats. There are 7,00,326 voters in the hill region.

The last GTA polls were held in 2012 and the tenure of the semi-autonomous body entrusted with local development ended in 2017.

The BJP, which won the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat thrice in a row since 2009, and the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) opposed the GTA elections alongside the Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists (CPRM) and All India Gorkha League (AIGL).

These parties argued that chief minister Mamata Banerjee held the polls against people’s wishes because the GTA obstructs the demand for a permanent political solution to the Gorkhaland issue.

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), which carried forward the Gorkhaland movement after GNLF and helped the BJP win three Lok Sabha polls in Darjeeling, became an ally of the TMC before the 2021 assembly polls. But GJM president Bimal Gurung boycotted the GTA polls while many of his former leaders contested as independent candidates.

“People did not want this election. Why should we contest it? It is true that there were many independent candidates,” Gurung said on Sunday.

The Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM), the newly-launched but popular Hamro Party, TMC and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), contested the polls.

The Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad polls were held because tenure of the old panchayat boards had ended. The parishad was earlier controlled by the Left parties.

Sridhar Thapa, a BJP election agent at Sukantanagar and Akhtar Ali, an independent candidate at Fhansidewa, alleged that they suffered head injuries in attacks by TMC supporters.

Sukanta Majumdar, the state BJP president, said: “TMC resorted to violence because it is not even confident of winning panchayat and civic body seats in Bengal. No wonder it ranked fourth in the Tripura assembly by-polls the results to which were announced today.”

TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh denied the allegations saying the charges were concocted.

By-polls at six municipal wards in of North 24 Parganas, Hooghly and Purulia were held because of the death of six candidates who contested the state-wide civic polls held on February 27.

Two of the winners were murdered.

Anupam Dutta, a TMC leader, and Tapan Kandu of the Congress were killed in North 24 Parganas and Purulia respectively on March 13. The crimes, which took place within hours of each other, rocked the state.

Dutta, who won from ward No 8 of Panihati municipality, was shot in the head from close range by a man. The state police are investigating the murder. Dutta’s wife, Minakshi, contested his seat on Sunday.

Kandu, who won from ward No 2 of Jhalda municipality in Purulia for the fourth time this year, was shot by some motorcycle-borne men when he was out for a walk with his friends.

Kandu’s murder is being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) under orders of the Calcutta high court. His wife, Purnima Kandu is also a Congress councillor.

The seat Kandu represented was contested by one of his nephews, Mithun Kandu. The Forward Bloc, a partner in the Left Front, supported him.