As Darjeeling, Raiganj and Jalpaiguri went to polls in the second phase of elections, reports are emerging of instances of violence and voter intimidation at a few polling centres. A candidate’s convoy also came under attack.
Violent clashes erupted between workers of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at booth number 112 of Raiganj constituency. Reportedly the booth has been completely vandalised and the electronic voting machines (EVM) have been damaged. Voting had been stalled here at the time of going to press.
In Islampur, the convoy of Mohammed Salim, the CPI (M) candidate, was attacked by people who pelted stones and bricks at his vehicle, shattering windows and the windscreen. CPI (M) has alleged that TMC was behind the attack. Salim is contesting against TMC’s Kanhaiya Lal Agarwal, BJP’s Deboshree Chaudhary and Congress’s Deepa Dasmunshi.
Meanwhile locals took to the streets and tried to block national highway 34 in protest when bike borne men, allegedly tried to prevent people from casting their vote at the Digirpar polling booth in Chopra. Police had to resort to lathi charge and lobbing tear gas shells to disperse the protesters.