KOLKATA: Sporadic clashes marred the fourth phase of voting for the eight Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal on Monday with a high voter turnout of 75.66%, election officials said. The Bolpur (SC) constituency from where Asit Kumar Mal from Trinamool Congress, Shyamali Pradhan from CPM, and Priya Saha from BJP are the key contestants, polled the highest vote percentage at 77.77.
Around 1,700 complaints of EVM malfunction and obstruction of agents entering booths were recorded, the EC said, adding the TMC, Congress, and BJP filed hundreds of complaints related to poll violence, voter intimidation, and assaults on agents.
In voter percentage, Bolpur (SC) was followed by Ranaghat (77.46%), Bardhaman-Purba (77.36), Krishnanagar (77.29), Birbhum (75.45), Baharampur (75.36), Bardhaman-Durgapur (75.02) and Asansol (69.46), an official said. Out of the eight seats, Bolpur, Bardhaman-Purba, Birbhum and Krishnanagar were won by the Trinamool in 2019, whereas Bardhaman-Durgapur, Ranaghat and Asansol were bagged by the BJP. The Baharampur seat was retained by the Congress.
Clashes broke out between supporters of TMC and BJP in Monteswar’s Susunia area of Bardhaman-Durgapur Lok Sabha seat around noon, as BJP candidate Dilip Ghosh was on his way to a polling booth following complaints of booth jamming.
TMC supporters allegedly blocked Ghosh’s convoy and squatted in front of his vehicle, starting a protest against him. Stones were hurled at his convoy, following which some of the cars of the security personnel tailing his convoy were damaged.
Ghosh was also heckled by the TMC activists, sources said. “The police are mute spectators. The TMC has let loose a reign of terror. TMC goons have beaten up our polling agents and are not allowing polling to be free and fair,” Ghosh told the media.
The TMC, however, denied the charges and said Ghosh was “trying to vitiate the atmosphere sensing defeat.” In Durgapur area of the same constituency, clashes broke out between the TMC and the BJP, following which saffron activists staged a sit-in.
Party clash
In Birbhum, the BJP workers clashed with TMC men in Nanoor after BJP’s agents were stopped from entering booths.