KOLKATA: Amid the deaths of two more people in the past 24 hours ahead of the upcoming rural elections, the State Election Commission (SEC) on Monday identified 4,834 polling booths as sensitive. This is 7.8 per cent of the total number of booths where 5.67 crore voters will exercise their franchise on July 8.
The Centre on Monday gave the nod to send 485 additional companies of the Central Armed Paramilitary Force (CAPF) as requisitioned by the SEC to comply with the Calcutta High Court’s order directing the state poll panel to deploy central forces across the state during the panchayat elections.
The total death toll before the rural polls has gone up to 15 in the past fortnight.
“Out of 61,636 polling booths, we mapped 4,834 as sensitive ones which is 7.8 per cent of the total capacity. We identified the sensitive booths on the basis of the experience in past rural polls,” said an SEC official.
Bengal on Monday continued recording fresh deaths ahead of the rural polls. The body of Bankim Hansda, bearing injury marks, was found lying in a field at Manbazar in Purulia. The BJP claimed the deceased was a party worker.
“Hansda left home on Sunday evening and did not return home at night. His family members found the body on Monday morning. We sent the body for autopsy to ascertain the exact cause behind Hansda’s death,” said a police officer in Purulia.
BJP MLA and Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari demanded a CBI probe into Hansda’s death.
In another incident, Paritosh Mondal died in an explosion when he was manufacturing crude bombs in a paddy field at Habra, North 24 Parganas. Police said local residents rushed to the spot hearing the sound of an explosion only to find Mondal in a pool of blood. He was rushed to the local healthcare centre where doctors declared him dead on arrival.
West Bengal governor C.V. Ananda Bose, on his way to Raj Bhavan from his north Bengal trip, went straight to Basanti, South 24 Parganas, where a Trinamool Congress youth wing worker Jairul Mollah (45) was killed on Saturday night. Bose visited the spot after arriving Kolkata by train and met the daughter of the victim Manoara Piada, who is a candidate in the upcoming rural polls, and some residents the locality.
Manoara alleged that her father was a victim of the TMC’s intra party feud between youth wing supporters and activists of the mother organisation.
“Violence is taking place in some pockets in Bengal. I urge people to refrain from violence,” Bose said.