Panchayat elections: Repolling underway in over 600 booths across 19 districts of Bengal
On Monday, fresh polling started at 696 booths across 19 districts of West Bengal for the three-tier panchayat system with reports of sporadic violence coming from different pockets of the state.
However, the reports and seriousness of violence coming so far had been negligible compared to what it was on the polling day on Saturday when a number of violence-related deaths were reported in the first two hours of polling.
Several police officers and policemen were seen approaching the voters at their residence and offering to escort them to the polling stations. There were adequate central armed forces within and outside the booths where the polling was happening.
Although late Sunday night, the West Bengal State Election Commission (WBSEC) had issued a notification claiming that there will be fresh polling for 697 booths on Monday morning it was learned that the number has been reduced by one.
The maximum number of booths where the re-polling is going on since Monday morning is in Murshidabad, followed by Malda and Nadia.
At Domjur in the Howrah district tension mounted over the alleged attempts to break into the strong room where the ballot- boxes were stored. As pressure mounted a police contingent reached the spot and took the situation under control.
According to the CPI(M) state secretariat member Kallol Majumdar, the back side wall of the substantial room has been broken by Trinamool Congress miscreants.
“There had been reports of violence from Khejuri in East Midnapore district where three ballot boxes were thrown in an adjacent pond. The ruling party activists have been hurling bombs in the area since Sunday night. The central forces personnel are not visible there,” he said.
Trinamool Congress leadership, however, denied the allegations.
[With Inputs from IANS]
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