Amid tight security, over 78% of the around 12.4mn electorate braved the sweltering heat to cast their votes for 53 constituencies in the fifth and penultimate phase of the West Bengal assembly polls yesterday. Stray incidents of violence were reported.
Since 7am, when polling began, large queues of voters were seen outside almost all the booths for 31 constituencies in South 24 Parganas, 18 in Hooghly districts and four in South Kolkata.
State chief electoral officer Sunil Gupta said two presiding officers - one in Tarakeshawar and another in Arambagh - of Hooghly district were removed for helping voters to cast their votes.
He said altogether 186 people were arrested, of whom 177 were taken into custody under preventive sections, and nine others on specific charges.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Congress accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of intimidating voters and election agents.
Assembly Deputy Speaker and Trinamool Congress candidate Sonali Guha courted controversy in her constituency Satgachia of South 24 Parganas when she was caught by TV cameras instructing over phone to “thrash CPM agent from a booth.”
The poll panel subsequently ordered that a first information report be lodged against Guha for the remarks.
On the other hand, Trinamool leaders including Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee alleged “excesses” by the central security forces.
There were reports of entry of “outsiders” in Kasba while in Haripal of Hooghly district, the CPM claimed its agents were prevented from entering or threatened and intimidated in some booths in Khanakul in Hooghly and South 24-Parganas’ Canning East.
Clashes between the Trinamool and CPM were reported in Arambagh of Hooghly.
Left Fronta-Congress backed independent nominee Ambikesh Mahapatra alleged voters were being prevented from entering booths and one of his polling agents’ family members assaulted by “Trinamool goons” in his constituency Behala East.
There was almost a festive atmosphere in the booths of south Kolkata, with the central police forces keeping a strict watch to ensure free and fair polls.
A clutch of celebrities - actresses Roopa Ganguly, Moon Moon Sen and her daughters Riya and Raima, Rituparna Sengupta, Indrani Haldar, veteran actor Ranjit Mullick, and former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly - expressed their democratic choice. Some of them clicked selfies, and even obliged fans with autographs.
The Trinamool and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are contesting in all the seats in this phase.
Among the political heavyweights who exercised their franchise were Chief Minister and Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee and her predecessor and Marxist veteran Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
All eyes were on south Kolkata’s Bhabanipur, where Banerjee - seeking re-election - is facing a challenge from Left Front-backed Congress nominee Deepa Dasmunshi and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s grandnephew Chandra Kumar Bose of the BJP.
The sixth and final phase is on May 5.
Trinamool Congress MP and veteran actress Moon Moon Sen and her daughters Riya and Raima show their forefingers marked with ink after casting their votes at a polling booth in Kolkata yesterday.
