KMC polls pass off peacefully with over 63% voter turnout

KOLKATA: The high-octave Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) election passed off peacefully, as 63.63 per cent of the over 40 lakh voters exercised their franchise till 5 pm on Sunday, when voting ended. The final voter turnout will be available on Monday as there were still people in queue to vote at 5 pm when the polls ended, SEC officials said.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee demolished the allegation of violence during polling as was raised by the opposition and congratulated the people for peaceful voting. Both the state Election Commission and the police described the elections as "peaceful".

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also congratulated the police for conducting a free, fair and peaceful election. She expressed satisfaction over the poll percentage. She denied the allegation made by the BJP and other opposition parties of violence.

After casting her vote at Mitra Institution, Banerjee said: "People in Bengal are celebrating the festival of Democracy with pride!"

Partha Chatterjee, Trinamool Congress secretary-general, congratulated the state Election Commission for conducting a peaceful election. He alleged that the BJP had brought outsiders to create trouble, but the promptness of police and people had foiled their bid to create trouble.

Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamool Congress national general-secretary, said if the BJP could not field polling agents in different booths it was their problem. He reiterated that any person irrespective of political colour, who would be found creating trouble, would be put behind the bars.

He stated that if BJP had any substantial footage to show the alleged involvement of his party's workers in any violent activities during the polls, then the saffron party could submit the same in court. He also reiterated that if such allegations against the TMC were proved to be true, then his party would take action against the accused workers within 24 hours. Police were found active while dealing with the trouble mongers and arrested about 125 persons for trying to create a disturbance.

The Kolkata Police used drones to conduct aerial surveys to find out if any unauthorised gathering was taking place.

Voting began at 7am. About 40,48,357 voters spread over 144 wards. The people cast their votes in the atmosphere of the festival.

From morning, voters queued up in front of the polling stations to exercise their franchise. There were 4959 polling stations housed in 1676 premises. Of the total number of voters, 21,17,840 are male and 19,30,444 are female.

There was CCTV surveillance in all the polling stations. As many as 950 people are contesting in the election. There were 1139 sensitive booths and a total of 23,500 policemen were deployed to maintain peace. The police did not allow any gathering near the polling booths. The presence of women voters was remarkable.

There were some stray incidents in wards 45,22 and 23 in Burrabazar. The BJP supporters alleged that TMC workers had threatened their supporters and prevented them from casting their vote in ward 45. In ward 22, clashes took place between the BJP and agents of independent candidates. The police intervened and dispersed the crowd. In ward 23, Congress workers alleged that TMC activists had stopped their supporters from coming to the polling station.

Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee cast their votes at Mitra Institution in Bhabanipur. Both of them waved at the people who had gathered to see them. Firhad Hakim went to cast his vote along with his wife and three daughters.

The first KMC election with the new member and mayor-in-council system was introduced in 1985, in which out of 141 seats both Left Front and Congress got 70 seats each. The Left Front had formed the civic board with the support of a Left Front backed Independent candidate Dr KP Ghosh. The Left Front had unleashed a reign of terror in 1990 KMC election and also won the 1995 election. TMC won the 2000 election and lost to the Left Front in 2005. Since 2010, TMC has won the KMC election twice.