Till 3:30 pm, phase-4 election in West Bengal saw a voter turnout of 66.76%. Mathabhanga constituency saw the highest turnout & Bally recorded the lowest turnout.
Cooch Behar witnessed violence in the fourth-phase election in West Bengal with the death of five people. In Sitalkuchi, after a first-time voter was shot dead by miscreants, four people were killed just prior to noon, allegedly when the central forces had to open fire after they were attacked.
Family members of the people killed were grieving & crying over the deaths. In a coverage by IndiaTV channel, one of the family members stated that the security forces fired bullets when the victims refused to vote for BJP. The killings have erupted a blame-game between the BJP and the Trinamool Congress. The polling has been cancelled at the Sitalkuchi voting station.
Mamata Banerjee castigated the central government as she demanded the resignation of Home Minister Amit Shah. She said, “The BJP knows it would not win so it is resorting to bombs and violence.”
TMC blaming the BJP, has alleged that five of its party-supporters were killed.
Cooch Behar SP Debashish Dhar stated, “Till 9:30 everything was fine (at the polling booth). One man, who had come to vote, fainted and his treatment was going on just across the booth. As rumour got spread, locals thought he was beaten by central forces. Crowds then gathered and they tried snatching weapons from the CISF troops.”
Chief Minister Banerjee further said in a sharp response, “BSF and CISF are torturing people in villages. Women, boys and girls are being threatened that they should vote for the BJP. They have gone and shot people standing in line to vote. Who has given them this courage? So many people were not killed during the panchayat elections. In the state election, 20 people have been killed and 13 of them are from our party.”
Election Commission of India has sought a report in the matter by 5 pm.
Voting for the fourth-phase of the West Bengal election is being held today. As per the data released by the Election Commission of India, the voter-turnout in the fourth-phase election had touched 16.65% till 11 am.
Also See: Would West Bengal election really be a three-way fight after the defections?
At Bandel in Hooghly, the car of BJP candidate from Chinsurah-Locket Chatterjee was attacked by some people at polling booth number 66. A total of 789 companies of CAPF has been deployed by the Election Commission of India. The total number of polling stations for this phase is 15,940. The highest number of 187 companies of the CAPF have been deployed in Cooch-Behar, as the place had witnessed sporadic incidents of violence. Even then the place witnessed violence today resulting in the death of five people.
Also see: Trilateral fight in West Bengal election 2021
The fate of 373 candidates would be decided in this phase by a total of 1,15,81,022 voters. West Bengal ministers Partha Chatterjee & Arup Biswas, Union Minister Babul Supriyo, Locket Chaterjee, and Payel Sarkar are among the prominent candidates who are in the contest in the fourth-phase. Vote counting for the West Bengal assembly election will be held along with those for Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, and Puducherry on May 02.
