Over 80% polling in both West Bengal seats

KOLKATA: Bengal kicked off with an impressive 80%-plus turnout in Cooch Behar and Alipurduar, the first two of the state’s 42 constituencies that went to vote in the first phase of the general elections, though polling — especially in Cooch Behar — was marred by allegations of booth-jamming and sporadic violence.


The high polling percentage — 80.1% in Cooch Behar and 81.5% in Alipurduar — indicated a desperate drive by the main contenders, the Trinamool Congress and the BJP, to rally their supporters to polling booths despite some early-morning EVM glitches that prompted Trinamool minister Rabindranath Ghosh to see a “conspiracy”.

“The machines were replaced but there was no scope to check the replacements,” Ghosh said, alleging that the malfunction was “deliberate”. He also had a spat with a BSF jawan when he went to cast his vote at a booth in Natabari’s Dauaguri in Cooch Behar.


Dinhata reports most complaints in first phase

Trinamool minister Rabindranath Ghosh alleged that a BSF jawan overstepped his jurisdiction and entered the polling booth with him. “I want to know what law allowed him to do this,” Ghosh asked.

The BSF has taken up Ghosh’s complaint.

Most of the complaints in Cooch Behar came from the Dinhata assembly segment, home to BJP candidate Nisith Pramanik and Trinamool leader Udayan Guha, though the allegations and the violence seen on Thursday were several notches below the level seen in the 2018 panchayat poll.

The day began with a clash between Trinamool and BJP supporters at Rasmanta in Gitaldaha around 9.30 am. Polling was stalled for almost two hours before police rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control.

Trouble broke out again at Dinhata’s Matalhata Bhutpura polling booth a little later. BJP supporters claimed that an elderly couple was prevented from entering the booth by Trinamool workers and went on a dharna on Matalhata Road around 11.30 am to protest the “rigging”.

BJP leader Jayprakash Majumdar said complaints came from 700 of 2,010 booths manned by state forces; TMC minister Ghosh levelled charges against central forces.

Additional chief electoral officer Sanjay Basu said in Kolkata that polling was “peaceful”. “There was some unrest in Coochbehar’s Dinhata but police rushed to the spot and voting continued on peacefully,” he said.

Alipurduar, however, did not register too many complaints.