Stray incidents of violence, technical glitches mar polling in West Bengal

Surjit Kumar Dhal,Kolkata, May 19: Reports of stray incidents of hurling of crude bombs at Raidighi Assembly seat under Mathurapur Lok Sabha seat marred the polling in West Bengal as polling across nine Lok Sabha seats started in the state on Sunday morning.

There were also reports of delay in polling due to EVM malfunctioning and VVPAT machines not working.

EVMs in different parts of Kolkata were not functioning resulting in anger and frustration among voters.

Stray incidents of violence were reported from both north and south part of the State. The candidates of Opposition parties contesting from Kolkata North have alleged that their polling officers were threatened.

The CPI(M) candidate Koninika Ghosh sat on the road in Belgachia protesting that her polling agent was driven out. Ms Ghosh alleged that three agents were beaten up and driven out of polling booths. BJP candidate Rahul Sinha also alleged that there were intimidation of polling agent.

At Rajarhat, the BJP office was allegedly set on fire last night. There were reports of hurling of crude bombs at Raidighi Assembly seat under Mathurapur Lok Sabha seat. Fuad Halim the CPI(M) candidate from Diamond Harbour said polling agents were being driven out of the booths.

There has been no reports of any serious injury or casualties so far.

In many parts of the State, polling was also peaceful without any glitches.

An electorate of 1.49 crore will decide the fate of 111 candidates contesting in nine seats, Kolkata North and Kolkata South in the metropolis, Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat in North 24 Parganas and Diamond Harbour, Jaynagar (SC) and Mathurapur (SC) in South 24 Parganas respectively.

The Election Commission has deployed 710 companies of central armed police forces for the last phase of elections in the State. These forces will provide 100% static postings at all the 17,058 polling booths.