Repolling held peacefully in 696 booths across state

Kolkata: Apart from some sporadic incidents, the repoll that was held in 696 booths in 19 districts across the state passed off peacefully with 64.42 per cent voting reported till 5 pm on Monday.

There was adequate deployment of Central forces in all the booths where the repolls were conducted.

The death of a voter was reported from a booth in the Halderpara area under Dhoradaha I Gram Panchayat at Tehatta in Nadia district.

Halder suddenly fell ill while standing in the voting queue. He was declared brought dead at a nearby hospital. Doctors opined that he might have suffered cardiac arrest. As many as 89 booths in Nadia district saw repolling on Monday.

There were some allegations of the absence of CCTV surveillance in three odd booths at Battala Primary School at Joynagar in South 24-Parganas.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) alleged that CPI(M) supporters ransacked the residence of some of their party workers at Dahuka village in Jamuria in West Burdwan on Sunday night. CPI(M), however, denied the allegations.

At the Dabgram-Fulbari block in Jalpaiguri, voters braved the rain to cast their votes although polling began a little later than the scheduled time. The Commission took necessary measures to make up for the loss in voting time. The vehicle of Trinamool Congress’ Panchayat Samity candidate Sheikh Sultana of Ankurhati in Birbhum was ransacked allegedly by CPI(M) supporters.

Stones were hurled at the residence of Sultana and her family members were allegedly intimidated. The police along with Central force personnel rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control. There were allegations of attacking the house of the TMC working president of a booth at Sonarpur in South 24-Parganas.

Five persons, including a Panchayat member, who had won uncontested were arrested in connection with the incident. Another person named Sujit Naskar was arrested in connection with the attack on TMC’s booth president at Kheyada II Gram Panchayat of Sonarpur.

The police recovered several socket bombs from bags strewn beside a pond at Beldanga in Murshidabad district. Murshidabad witnessed repolls in 175 booths — the highest among the state after several incidents of violence were reported on election day. Miscreants allegedly hurled bombs at Moyna near a booth in the Bakcha area of Moyna in East Midnapore. TMC alleged that it was the handiwork of miscreants owing allegiance to BJP who were attempting to capture booths. Trinamool workers staged a protest at Gangarampur in South Dinajpur and gheraoed the vehicle of BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar. Majumdar was also gheraoed at Kusmandi with TMC supporters claiming that he should not go close to polling booths. Majumdar is an MLA from Balurghat in South Dinajpur.