After the LS elections of 2019, India witnessed the largest electoral exercise today when 475 constituencies across four states of West Bengal, Kerala, Assam, Tamil Nadu & UT of Puducherry went to polls. West Bengal voted for the third phase of its assembly election. In this third phase of polling, voting took place for 31 seats. West Bengal witnessed a voter-turnout of 77.86% in the third-phase.
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At Arambagh, TMC candidate Sujata Mondol Khan was chased by a group of goons with lathis through a field near the polling booth at Arandi area. It was alleged that the incident was flared up by BJP.
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At a rally in Alipurduar, responding to the incident at Arambagh Mamata Banerjee stated, “They have inflicted serious injury on our Scheduled Caste candidate Sujata, when she visited a booth. They also hit another candidate in Khanakul. In Canning East, security forces prevented our nominee Shaukat Mollah from entering a booth. There had been numerous such instances of attack on our candidates, party workers across the state.” She also added that she has received at least 100 complaints of assault and violence since morning and that the Election Commission of India has been duly informed but to no avail.
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Sujata Mondol Khan stated,”At booth no 45 in Batanal, despite pressing the symbol of TMC, the vote is going for the BJP. I believe that I will get the blessings of the people. In Arandi, our workers have been beaten up. They (BJP) are thinking that by creating violence, they will get the Arambagh seat. They are mistaken. I am the kind of person who does not fear death.”
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The TMC-candidate at Khanakul assembly seat in Hooglhy district, Najibul Karim was surrounded by goons backed by BJP. Later, West Bengal police had to intervene to rescue the candidate. A booth-level worker for TMC in Goghat, Sunil Roy was killed when he was manhandled and pushed around by BJP-men in the region.
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Election in West Bengal is scheduled to be held in 8 phases from March 27 to April 29 and the vote counting will take place on May, 02.