Multiple incidents of violence were reported during the elections to 108 civic bodies in West Bengal on Sunday, 27 February. Polling began at 7 am and ended at 5 pm.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called for a 12-hour bandh in West Bengal on Monday, 28 February, to protest against the alleged rigging and attacks on opposition party members "by ruling TMC goons" during the elections.
"We have called for a 12 hours bandh (strike) tomorrow. Today in municipal elections women were misconducted and hundreds of people entered booths in various locations. Democracy is being demolished here," West Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar was quoted as saying by ANI.
Meanwhile, the state government said that they would not allow any Bandh or strike. "All schools, colleges will be open. State Govt will take all necessary measures to ensure that all establishments and services function smoothly and that there is no disruption," the West Bengal government said, according to ANI.
The West Bengal BJP unit also wrote to the State Election Commissioner demanding "Elections to 108 municipalities to be declared null and void".
As polling began on the morning of Sunday, numerous incidents of opposition candidates being beaten up, booth rigging, false voting, and other electoral malpractices were reported throughout the day.
According to NDTV, 44,000 police officials were deployed for the civic polls, with at least one armed police in every booth.
Later in the day, a statement by Raj Bhavan, Kolkata, said that the state election commissioner has been called upon for an update by West Bengal Governer Jagdeep Dhankar, in view of the "alarmingly disturbing inputs, depicting scenes of lawlessness, with administration in partisan mode, the systematic failure of state Election Commission..."
The statement further read, "State Election Commissioner Shri Saurabh Das has been called upon to be fully updated on developments in the election process on 27 February that prima facie indicates failure of democracy."
The Allegations
ANI reported that a clash broke out between Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers in North Parganas.
Arjun Singh, vice-president of the BJP in West Bengal, said that two electronic voting machines (EVMs) were vandalised at ward 9 and that the situation is similar at other booths. He added that the police are arresting BJP workers and not letting them vote.
Singh said, "Only police and goons are voting here. Voters are scared to vote, especially the Bengali population, who are not being allowed to vote. Even TMC's core vote bank, Muslims, are not able to vote. Police here are playing one of the three monkeys of Gandhiji."
Singh had heated arguments with some TMC members in a few wards of Bhatpara.
A senior State Election Commission official told PTI, "sporadic incidents of violence were reported. We noted disturbances in a few areas and took action. The overall situation, however, was peaceful."
In the Rajpur-Sonarpur Municipality, a polling station was allegedly ransacked by unidentified goons and EVMs were damaged.
Unidentified workers on motorcycles allegedly roamed the streets of many municipal areas of North 24 Parganas and stopped people from entering polling booths.
According to an Indian Express report, Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) candidates in Arambag allegedly came under attack by the TMC. Media persons in Dum Dum and at Contai in East Midnapore district were allegedly beaten up by TMC workers. There were reports of violence in Murshidabad too.
In Bhatpara, a BJP candidate’s husband was accused of destroying EVMs.
Votes will be counted on 2 March.
(With inputs from PTI, The Indian Express and NDTV.)
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