Opposition polling agents target of violence

Kolkata: The faceless men and women, who man poll booths on the candidates' behalf to ensure fair play, are being repeatedly singled out for attacks by alleged Trinamool activists, strategically, to scare and intimidate them. The attacks reported from Halisahar to Behala, follow a pattern evident even during the Left regime. But the alacrity and frequency of attacks on poll agents - and their kin - have kept everyone on the tenterhooks.

On the night of April 30, when six-and-a-half-year old Ishani Patra was dozing at the lap of her mother Sabita, 30 men - armed with sticks and bamboos - barged inside her house around 11.30 pm at the Pyarabagan slums in Ballygunge. They were actually searching for Sabita's sister-in-law Smriti Patra, a polling agent at David Hare College who had hidden inside the house. Unable to locate her, these men allegedly led by local TMC leader Bharat Jana found Ishani with her mother. An attacker dragged her from her mother's lap and tried to hurl her on the floor, she survived barely but not without injuries.

The same night at Haridevpur, 10-year-old Priti Bor and her mother were attacked when Trinamool men had gone to their residence searching for her father Dinesh Bor, a CPM booth committee member who was also a polling agent. Realizing he might be attacked, Dinesh had gone into hiding.

75-year-old Mayarani Ghosh, who has now moved HC seeking compensation for the attack on her family and damages to her home, was also targeted for the same reason. Her son, Buddhadeb Ghosh, the CPM ward 101 secretary and an employee of Jadavpur University mechanical department, was also a polling agent.

The EC in its poll-eve directions had declared, "Commission in consultation with district election authorities, police authorities and observers and other stakeholders, has identified anti-social elements and these elements are under strict watch of police authorities and will not be allowed to intimidate voters and polling agents. Harshest legal action will be taken." The directions, CPM leaders allege, have remained mostly on paper.

On April 25 night, some bike-borne miscreants attacked the New Barrackpore house of Priti Kumar Roy, a mathematics professor of Jadavpur University who was a polling agent of North Dum Dum's CPM candidate Tanmoy Bhattacharya.

Sources said Roy had foiled an 'attempt to cast false votes' at booth No. 7 at New Barrackpore high school. At Dum Dum, the house of another polling agent of CPM candidate was attacked by alleged Trinamool supporters.

Ratna Dutta, a CPM state committee leader, who had herself donned the role of a polling agent in an Entally booth on April 25, said, "The threats and intimidation haven't stopped. Even when I step out of home or party office, I have to bear their continuous glare and comments."