Citizens show their fingers marked with indelible ink after casting their vote during the by-election to Bhabnipur Assembly Constituency.
Moderate voting was recorded in the by-election to Bhabnipur assembly seat, where West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is contesting to retain her post, as polling in the high-profile constituency of South Kolkata concluded peacefully on Thursday.
Around 53.32 per cent polling was recorded in this seat till 5 pm. The Election Commission said that the final polling will be held on Friday by 6 pm.
High polling rates of 78.60 per cent and 76.12 per cent were recorded in Murshidabad’s Samserganj and Jangipur seats, respectively, where polling had to be canceled during the April-May assembly elections following the death of two candidates.
A total of 6,97,164 voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in the three constituencies.
Banerjee, who is also the Trinamool Congress supremo, has been pitted against BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal and CPI(M)’s Shreejib Biswas in Bhawanipore. The voter of the constituency, Banerjee cast her vote at the Mitra Institution School in the area.
There were sporadic incidents of scuffles between BJP and TMC supporters from some areas of the constituency.
Tibrewal claimed that the TMC forcibly stopped the voting process at a polling booth in ward number 72 and that ministers of state Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee were trying to influence voters in the constituency.
The BJP has lodged a complaint with the Election Commission against Hakim and Mukherjee.
Hakim, however, denied the allegations as baseless.
“Does drinking tea on the roadside affect voters? The BJP knows it will lose the bypolls and is now making lame excuses,” he said.
A minor scuffle was reported between supporters of Trinamool Congress and BJP outside a booth in Bhawanipur, alleging that the ruling party was bringing fake voters inside the polling booth. The security forces brought the situation under control.
The TMC also filed a complaint with the Election Commission, accusing Tibrewal of roaming around with 20 cars and intimidating voters, a charge he denied.
The BJP later alleged that its polling agents were not allowed inside several booths. Hakim said such claims were politically motivated.
In another incident, BJP leader Kalyan Choubey’s car was allegedly vandalized on Sarat Bose Road. Incidentally, Choubey was working as an election agent for Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular candidate Satdru Rai.
Kolkata Police submitted a report regarding the incident to the Election Commission, after which the Election Commission dismissed the allegations of it being a political attack.
Bombs were hurled a few hours before the polling began in Samserganj at 7 am. The TMC had accused the Congress of carrying out the attack, which the old party called baseless.
Congress has demanded re-polling in nine booths of Samserganj assembly constituency.
The Election Commission has received 97 complaints so far, out of which 91 have been rejected. Out of these 97 complaints, 85 were related to Bhabnipur by-election.
The BJP took a dig at TMC over low turnout in Bhabnipur, saying voters did not support the ruling party’s campaign to project the bypoll as a precursor to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls to defeat the saffron party.
“What will happen to Mamata Banerjee’s ambition to project herself as an alternative to Narendra Modi in the 2024 elections? She had described Bhabnipur as a mini-India that would show the country how to vote and elect it in large numbers. How to fight BJP with a huge margin,” said party spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya.
He wondered “what will happen to the claims of various TMC leaders that Mamata Banerjee will win by a margin of over 1 lakh votes.”
Reacting to the BJP’s statement, Hakim said the saffron camp should be more concerned about the security of its bail.
“They should be concerned about whether they will be able to secure their deposit or will it have to be forfeited,” he said.
The chief minister, who lost from Nandigram constituency in the assembly elections earlier this year, has to win this bypoll to retain the post.
The counting of votes will take place on October 3.
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