It's poll 'enforcers' vs forces today

KOLKATA: North Kolkata will have to wait till Thursday to know which of these will prevail: central forces and cops, which plan to seal off north and central Kolkata from Bidhannagar, Baranagar and south Kolkata, or the forces that had run amok in the same belt during civic election last year, shooting a policeman in uniform.

Kolkatans would definitely not want a repeat of the violence, which forced a large section of voters to cower indoors. Yet, the signs are ominous. Cossipore-Belgachia jote candidate Kaninika Bose Ghosh alleges that Trinamool leader Swapan Chakraborty has been sending his men door to door targeting CPM sympathizers. Trinamool candidate Mala Saha denies this and accuses the opposition of "making up stories".

Sonarpur police have arrested local Trinamool leader Pratap Bagh, who contested the last panchayat polls and was allegedly caught preparing bombs. What's worrying, sources say , is that the main accused in the Haridevpur pub shooting -Nanti and two dreaded associates -were there with Bagh, but managed to dodge the cops.

Shreyasi Naskar, a college student from Panchasayer, has complained to police that Trinamool men are harassing her with lewd gestures because she spoke to the media about Trinamool's bike brigade that was trying to intimidate voters. The same gang returned to threaten her, she says. At Narkeldanga, Congress alleged that Trinamool nominee Paresh Pal's men threatened Congress supporters. There was commotion in Kalighat after banners and festoons of opposition parties were found torn.At Garden Reach, an opposition supporter alleged his house was torched by ruling party supporters.

Arrests and seizures continued on Wednesday -Na resh Shaw and Keshav Singh were among those nabbed with guns. Lalbazar HQ said they have seized 146 weapons, 329 cartridges and 101 bombs in Kolkata and executed 9,228 warrants (844 are pending). A whopping 60% of polling premises in Kolkata have been marked vulnerable -these includes areas in Cossipore, Narkeldanga and Canal Road. "Central force route marches have begun 24 hours prior to the elections. The number of ports for Dial 100 have been increased from eight to 30," said joint CP (HQ) Supratim Sarkar.

Flap over flares

A pre-poll police check on Howrah bridge led to the sezure of a mysterious consignment of flares and smoke canisters from a minitruck on Wednesday. Till late night, police had not been able to get much from the two arrested suspects Amit Shaw and Pradip Roy.

"These flares are mostly used to help helicopters land in the dark, so we can't yet call them explosives. We are probing where the stuff was being delivered and why, "a police officer said.

TMC leader in a row with cops

Trinamool leader and Borough XV chairman Ranjit Sil allegedly got into a tiff with cops when his vehicle was stuck in a queue during checking by central forces on Paharpur road. "I was on my way to a morgue and a trailer was blocking the road. When I asked cops to remove it as it was illegally parked, police said it was not their job. This led to an argument and nothing more," said Sil.