West Bengal panchayat election 2018: Six killed as violence mars rural polls; over 41% voting recorded till 1 pm

Kolkata: At least six people were killed on Monday in West Bengal as violence and clashes between supporters of different parties in several districts marred voting for the rural bodies. “We have, so far, received telephonic complaints of six deaths. We are awaiting written confirmation,” said State Election Commission (SEC) Secretary Nilanjan Shandilya, who put the polling percentage till 1 pm at over 41 percent. [caption id=“attachment_4266629” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] A youth was beaten to death as he tried to enter a polling premises in Nadia district while a Trinamool Congress activist was shot dead in South 24 Parganas district’s Kultali, police said. The Communist Party of India-Marxist claimed one of their activists was killed in bomb attacks in North 24 Parganas district’s Amdanga. Two deaths were reported from Murshidabad district, and another from Nadia. “Three youths were beaten up by locals in Nadia district’s Shantipur area on Monday morning. Police rescued and got them admitted to a local hospital. One of them, Sanjit Pramanik, succumbed to his injuries,” Nadia district Superintendent of Police Santosh Pandey told IANS. “Trinamool Congress worker Arif Ali Gazi was shot in the chest while coming out of a polling booth. He died in a hospital,” an officer from Kultali police station said. Though CPM’s North 24 Parganas leaders claimed their party activist died in Amdanga after he was attacked with crude bombs, there was no police confirmation. “We have heard of the incident but it is not confirmed yet. We are going to the spot,” an officer from Amdanga police station said. The polling for electing 38,616 representatives in three tiers of the Panchayati Raj institutions started at 7 am and will continue till 5 pm. As the day progressed, reports of clashes, booth capturing, vandalising of ballot boxes and rigging were received from pockets of South and North 24 Parganas, North Dinajpur, Nadia, West Midnapore and Cooch Behar districts. In South 24 Parganas’ Bhangar, the ‘Jomi, Jibika, Bastutantra O Poribesh Raksha Committee’ (Committee for protecting land, livelihood, ecology and environment), which is spearheading an anti-power grid movement in the area, accused armed miscreants of the Trinamool Congress of kidnapping their Panchayat Samiti candidate Sariful Mullick and terrorising voters. The committee alleged that their candidate Entazul Khan was severely injured in an attack by Trinamool Congress-backed miscreants and was taken to Kolkata’s RG Kar Hospital. Clashes were also reported in the district’s Namkhana and several other areas. In north Bengal’s Cooch Behar, minister Rabindranath Ghosh was accused of slapping a Bharatiya Janata Party polling agent and forcing him out of the polling premises, following which the SEC sought a report from the district administration. The minister, however, denied all allegations. Violence also took place in East Midnapore district’s Panskura and West Midnapore district’s Keshpur where gun-toting miscreants gathered outside the polling stations and beat up voters. Several attempts to rig the election process were also reported across the state as miscreants poured water into ballot boxes or set them on fire. Initially, voting for the rural bodies was to be held on 1, 3 and 5 May but as the nomination process started in April, it was rescheduled to 14 May by the SEC following a Calcutta High Court order to extend the nomination deadline and announce a fresh polling date. Statistics reveal that of the total 58,692 seats in the three tiers of the rural local bodies, 20,076 seats, or 34.2 percent, have been decided uncontested, with the Trinamool bagging a whopping proportion of these seats. These include 16,814 of the total 48,650 gram panchayats seats, 3,059 of the 9,217 panchayat samiti seats and 203 of the 825 zila parishad seats. The Supreme Court has now asked the SEC not to issue winning certificates in these seats.