West Bengal: Opposition Parties Allege Election Malpractices in Municipal Elections

Voting to 108 municipalities and 2,271 wards took place on Sunday, February 27, amidst allegations of election malpractices. Around 10,280 booths were set up for the voting process in the state. Even before the voting again, Trinamool Congress (TMC), the ruling party, had already won 91 wards, allegedly using muscle power as no opposition candidate filed their nominations in these constituencies.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM) dubbed the polling day as a black day in electoral history in the state.

In Contai, the voting process ended by 1.15 pm. Similar scenes were observed in multiple other seats. In Sonamukhi municipality of Bankura district, incidents of firing by unknown men were reported. It is alleged that the hooligans captured Joynagar and Majilpur municipalities in the afternoon, at around 2 pm.

Similar hoodlum behaviour and booth capturing allegations were noticed in the Rajpur, Maheshtala and Buj Buj, Barasat, North Dumdum, Kamarhati and Madhyamgram municipalities. In the Englishbazaar municipality of Maldah district, all CPIM polling agents were allegedly driven out from the polling station premises.

The state also witnessed incidents of violence against candidates belonging to opposition parties. In Rajpur Sonarpur ward no 1, CPIM candidate Tarak Das was beaten up, allegedly by TMC hooligans. A similar thing happened in Barasat municipality, where the hooligans mistreated senior CPIM leader and candidate Shibshankar Roy. In Madhyamgram, CPIM candidate Ratna Bhattacharya was thrown out of municipal areas by armed hooligans who threatened her with a revolver.

In the Diamond Harbour, no mock poll was held before the opposition parties’ polling agents, and a few hundred votes were polled much before the poll started in almost all booths of the ward. Along with that, the municipality witnessed scenes of booth capturing and vote-rigging.In South Dumdum municipality, armed hooligans took control of the polling process. The police and the election machinery remained mute spectators to these scenes across the state.

During the day, the Left parties made 102 complaints to the state election commissioner. CPIM has demanded that an independent institution probe the malpractices done in the municipal elections.

In a press release, Left Front chairman Biman Bose described the events as “farce and hijacking” of people’s democratic rights. He also said that protests would be held in all the municipalities where voting was held yesterday.

“The Left Front has decided to hold sit-in demonstrations in front of offices of all SDO/returning officers,” Bose said.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has called for a 12-hour Bengal bandh today, its Bengal unit president Sukanta Majumdar announced yesterday.