Raiganj by-election passes off peacefully
Raiganj: Apart from some sporadic incidents, Raiganj Assembly by-election in the North Dinajpur district passed off peacefully. Voter turnout at 5pm was recorded at 67.12 per cent. Queues were continuing at the time of filing of this report.
As the water level of the Nagar River at Gouri Gram Panchayat started rising, voters had to reach the polling booth at Anantapur FP School by boat. Mahammad Siddiqui, the GP member of Anantapur said: “The Anantapur FP school is located on the bank of Nagar River. From Wednesday morning the water level of the river started to rise. It inundated the banks. On behalf of the Panchayat, we arranged a boat for the voters to reach the polling station.” In some stations, polling started late on Wednesday morning owing to technical snags in the EVMs. At times there were groups of political party supporters in front of the booths but were dispersed by Central forces and state police. Manas Kumar Ghosh, the BJP candidate faced protests when he tried to enter some polling stations with his followers.
Krishan Kalyani, TMC candidate said: “Polling has passed off peacefully. Residents cast their votes in all the places with spontaneity. We believe that the voters favoured the TMC for the sake of the overall development of the state.”
Manas Kumar Ghosh, BJP candidate said: “TMC-backed goons intercepted our voters in front of polling stations in Ward No 4 and 7 in Raiganj in the presence of the police. After being informed we reached the spot and ensured that they could safely cast their votes.”
Pradip Kalyani, TMC leader said: “Manas Kumar Ghosh along with the BJP-backed miscreants tried to disturb the peaceful election process in different wards of Raiganj municipality. Locals protested and foiled his attempts.” Congress candidate Mohit Sengupta said: “The service of both police and Central forces was not satisfactory. Anyway, voters have favoured us.”
Sana Akhtar, the Superintendent of Police of Raiganj police District said: “By-election has passed off peacefully in Raiganj. No violence was reported from anywhere. Electors cast their votes without any problems.” In the 2024 Parliamentary elections, TMC nominated Krishna Kalyani as their candidate from the Raiganj seat. He had to resign from the post of MLA to fight for the parliamentary seat as the TMC candidate, thereby forcing a by-election. Kalyani was defeated by Kartick Chandra Paul of BJP by a margin of 68197 votes.
