FIR registered against BJP candidate Locket Chatterjee

Kolkata: The Election Commission has directed the Presiding Officer of booth number 159 at Dhaniakhali under Hooghly Lok Sabha constituency to lodge an FIR against BJP candidate Locket Chatterjee after a BJP activist damaged the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) after allegedly being "instigated" by her.

The Election Commission has initiated a probe into the incident and also sought a report from the District Magistrate of Hooghly in this regard. The Commission will take a decision after going through the report submitted by the district election officials. The incident led to the disruption of voting as the EMV and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) were damaged in the process. After being instructed by the Commission, the Presiding Officer of the booth registered an FIR at the local police station.

The incident created a chaos inside the polling booth and outside. The local villagers staged protest demonstrations in front of Chatterjee when she stepped out of the polling booth. It was alleged that one Nirmal Pal, a close aide of Chatterjee, threw the EVM on the floor and broke it. Some of the locals alleged that Chatterjee instigated her party activists to break the EVM.

The local villagers put up a roadblock few meters away from the booth calling the incident a blot on the largest democracy of the world. They staged demonstration and gheraoed Chatterjee's car. She had to face the wrath of the villagers and also got involved in heated altercations with them.

In a booth at Kakrakhuli area of Hooghly, Chatterjee entered a booth after she came to know that the BJP polling agent was driven out from there.

Chatterjee again courted controversy as she threatened the Trinamool Congress agent by saying that she would slap him. On a number of occasions, Chatterjee was extremely abusive on Monday.

Some of the villagers in Hooghly's Belmuri were asked by Chatterjee to shout a slogan 'Jai Shree Ram'. They denied and in turn shouted 'Vande Mataram' slogan. Chatterjee considered the villagers as Trinamool Congress supporters and lost her cool. A heated altercation ensued and she allegedly threatened them.

Chatterjee alleged that TMC carried out rigging at a booth in Mullickpur area of Hooghly.