Quiet booth capture by shadow agents

KOLKATA: No one in Beliaghata has apparently ever heard of Timir Kumar, an independent candidate who is contesting from the constituency . Not a single of his posters has ever been seen in the locality . Even residents of P-196, CIT Scheme VI M, the address Kumar provided in his affidavit for the election, have never seen him. But this “non-existent“ T Kumar--true to his poll symbol of a calculator--had planted his agents in almost every booth in Beliaghata, apparently the ruling party's pawns to gain control of the booths.

In fact, if challenged, these agents would pull out their badges, showing their candidate's name printed in bold in blue on white. They sat through the entire polling process, not budging for even a moment, while others went out for “regular breaks“. Kumar could have been one of the most “visible“ indepen dent candidate but he was no alone. There were severa other independent candidates who had put up their agents in different booths. The Opposi tion on Thursday alleged tha the ruling party had fielded these independent candidates and used them as part of their machinery to control the pol ling stations.

“These independent con testants can place two agents inside a booth each, adding to the number of agents of the ru ling party ,“ said a source. The se agents, whose actual work is to sift out fake voters, do jus the opposite: they push in fake voters and arm-twist presiding officers to ignore “these uns crupulous acts“. “If a ruckus breaks out or the presiding offi cer spots some anomaly , all the se agents gang up with their co unterparts of the ruling party and try to outnumber the oppo sition. This creates a pressure on the presiding officer,“ said an agent, who has been “managing the poll process for long“.

In Beliaghata, the opposition cried hoarse about false votes being cast since morning. “ At some booths, the Trinamool allowed these independent candidates' agents inside, apart from their own ones,“ claimed Rajib Biswas, CPM candidate. In certain booths, these agents even allegedly tried to slow down the polling process, while some “outsiders“ were spotted allegedly trying to influence and intimidate voters in the queue.

In some places, the police and the central force managed to chase away outsiders huddled in lanes near the booths.They hid inside under-construction buildings--like the one near a Subhash Pally Club --only to return once the armed forces left. Of the 52 arrests from Beliaghata, many were from Entally , Howrah and South 24-Parganas, police said.