West Bengal elections: Man waits 5 hours, 'catches' runaway wife at polling booth

JALPAIGURI: A tense domestic drama unfolded at booth no. 25/238 in Phansidewa's Tarabari, under the Matigara-Naxalbari assembly segment in Siliguri subdivision, on Thursday — when a man staked out a polling station for hours to intercept his wife, who had eloped with another man two years ago.

He had reasoned, correctly, that she would have to show up to vote. And so he waited.

Early in the morning, eyewitnesses at Tarabari Primary School noticed a man standing outside, speaking to no one, giving nothing away. It was a humid, overcast day and the sweat was visible on him, but he didn't move. Hours passed. He stayed.





At 2pm, a woman arrived at the booth with her voter's slip and EPIC card. The man moved instantly — lunging at her, trying to snatch her voter's card, pulling her hair and wrapping his arms around her from behind. The two struggled until CAPF personnel rushed in, freed the woman and restrained the man, who kept shouting and cursing.

It emerged that the woman was his wife. She had eloped with her partner two years ago. He had calculated that the SIR process — which had prompted widespread anxiety about voter deletions — would compel her to appear at her booth.

Once restrained, the man demanded that CAPF not allow his wife to vote until his name was removed from her EPIC card as her husband. The security personnel declined. After twenty minutes, they ensured she cast her vote and then escorted her out of the area.

The man left the polling station in a fury, throwing curses at the security personnel and the officials. The officials, for their part, could not keep straight faces. "I have been doing election duty for 26 years and this is a first-of-its-kind experience for me," said one polling official.
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