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With helicopters hovering above, people turned out in large numbers in West Bengal’s Maoist heartland in phase one of the staggered five-leg panchayat polls yesterday. |
Officials described the polls as “more or less peaceful”, though opposition parties complained of “rampant” booth-capturing by the ruling Trinamool Congress.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressed satisfaction over the “peaceful voting”.
A State Election Commission official put the polling percentage as 65% in Bankura, 60% in Purulia and 65% in West Midnapore district respectively till 5pm, the scheduled time for voting to end.
“The elections were more or less peaceful, though we received several complaints from the three districts about violence and problems in voting,” the SEC official said.
There were no arrests, but one person, said to be a Congress activist, was critically injured when an arrow lodged in his chest during violent clashes at Sabong in West Midnapore district.
The victim, Dipankar Ghosh, has been shifted to SSKM Hospital in Kolkata with the arrow still stuck in his chest.
“We may order repoll in four booths - three of them in Sabong and another in Saltola. The decision may be taken today or the day after,” the SEC official said.
Long queues were seen before the booths through the day, with women outnumbering men in some of the polling centres.
Helicopters kept vigil from the skies, and 15,000 paramilitary troopers and 35,000 state police personnel including commandoes and elite anti-insurgency force STRACO were on duty to maintain order.
Altogether 25,749 candidates are in fray for 8,273 gram panchayat, 1,799 panchayat samiti and 151 zilla parishad seats in the three districts.
The belt, though now peaceful, is called Junglemahal because of the large stretches of forests where the Maoists held sway for years. “It’s good that polling is going on peacefully in Junglemahal,” Banerjee told media persons outside the state secretariat.
But Left Front chairman Biman Bose said polling has been “one-sided” in several areas, and accused the Trinamool of attempts to rig the polls.
“There are places like Bishnupur and Joypur of Bankura district, where the Trinamool drove out our polling agents, and tried to rig votes. In these places, polling has been one-sided,” he said.
The Congress alleged “rampant” booth capturing in West Midnapore and Bankura, as well as attacks on its workers and supporters. “At least 11 booths in West Midnapore including Sabang, Keshpur and Garbeta have been captured by Trinamool Congress. Many other booths too have been captured in the other two districts,” said Congress leader Abdul Mannan.