Nine remaining constituencies—Dumdum, Barasat, Basirhat, Joyagar, Mathurapur, Diamond Harbour, Jadavpur, Kol Dakshin and Kol Uttar—of the 42 seats in all in West Bengal would go for polls on coming Sunday to bring the curtains down on a violence-laden elections in Mamata Banerjee and her TMC’s West Bengal.
The 2019 General Elections have witnessed a comparatively peaceful polling across the country barring some minor incidents in Jammu and Kashmir and a tragic attack by Naxalites on central forces in Maharastra but Bengal has witnessed unabated rounds of violence at every turn of six phases.
The only thing consistent in the six phases bygone has been violence and intimidation. In the sixth and penultimate round, a renewed round of violence was witness in Dogachia constituency yesterday. Stones were used as missiles by the alleged supporters of Mamata Banerjee to attack Bhartiya Janata Party candidate Bharti Ghosh, who had gone inside polling booth. The convoy of the candidate was also attacked by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) miscreants and the media also came under their attack. Bharti Ghosh apparently broke down at this physical threat to herself. This was not the only incident that happened on Sunday.
Besides Dogachia, the constituencies in Bhagabanpur and Jhagram, were witness to orchestrated violence and it seemed be it central forces, BJP workers or its leaders, they were no match to the ferocity of TMC muscle power.
At Baghabanpur, two BJP workers are reported to be shot at and the culprits are still at large. It is reported that one BJP worker Ruman Singh has died and BJP has blamed TMC of murdering their worker. Similar reports have come from Jhargram where the situation is reported to be tense after two BJP workers are reportedly shot at and one worker lost his life.
The recent surge in support of BJP in Jhagram have set alarming bells ringing for Mamata Banerjee. The once hot-bed of Naxalites, Jhargram, Lalgarh, Purulia have seen the emergence of BJP and this hasn’t gone well with the TMC.
Another report coming from Egra in East Midnapore is that BJP state president Dilip Ghosh was attacked with rains of bricks when he went to polling station. It is claimed that his car was smashed by TMC workers and the members of media also came under attack. Later Ghosh said, “The state police arrested BJP workers and the hands of police personnel are tied to the CM. The more Mamata is realizing that she is slipping towards defeat, the more violence she is resorting to.”
“The policemen were seen shielding themselves from the stones thrown at them by a rather huge number of people at Dogachia,” told a witness to the reporter of a news channel.
A news reporter said they are themselves scared of venturing out in line of their duty. “The kind of crude bombs hurled, and the intimidation we have to face, we are scared to even go out. A local policeman, on the condition of anonymity, told us that he is helpless to offer any assistance. Another thing I want to add, there is a total lawlessness and when the BJP candidate was attacked and when we were made targets by these elements, no state police personnel was present.”
It is claimed by the witnesses that at every polling booth, the supporters of Mamata Banerjee are threatening the voters, who just want to exercise their democratic right, and this is happening when Centre has sent a large contingent of paramilitary forces. There are reports that the members of one particular community is prevented from voting by the TMC supporters.
