Amid sporadic disturbances, 33% voting in Bengal

Kolkata, May 6 (IANS) Amid an attack on BJP candidate Arjun Singh and cases of intimidation, violence and glitches in electronic voting machines (EVMs), close to 33.47 per cent of the electorate voted in the first four hours of polling on Monday in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal.

Polling has been highest in Sreerampur (36.84), followed by Uluberia (36.07), Arambag (34.98), Hooghly (33.55), Howrah (31.45), Bangaon (31.38) and Barrackpore (30.03).

The polling started at 7 a.m. and will continue till 6 p.m.

Violence erupted in North 24 Parganas' Barrackpore where former Railway Minister and sitting MP Dinesh Trivedi is taking on his erstwhile "election-manager" Arjun Singh, who crossed over to the BJP in March after he was denied ticket by the Trinamool leadership.

Singh sustained minor injuries on his face after being attacked allegedly by Trinamool Congress supporters outside a polling booth in the constituency's Aamdanga assembly segment.

Regarding Singh's allegations, Trivedi said: "The truth will be captured by media and monitored by the Election Commission (EC). Moreover, Singh is a 'Baahubali', how can anyone attack him".

In Naihati, Singh was chased away by Trinamool workers shouting "Go back, Arjun Singh". He reached the spot after he heard that outsiders were scaring away voters.

Hooghly constituency's BJP candidate Locket Chatterjee alleged that there are more than one Trinamool agents inside the polling booth in Dhanekhali, while her party agents were not being allowed inside.

"I will not allow anyone to use their influence in voting. I am not at all happy with the deployment of Central forces as they are being misguided by state police. It is not possible for a human being to keep running to different booths wherever such problems arise," she said.

On the other hand, in Gayeshpur under the Bangaon constituency, the Central forces were seen actively dispersing gatherings near the polling booths. Outsiders trying to hide in the houses of the locals were also caught by them.

A shocking incident was witnessed in Bijpur under the Barrackpore constituency where the voters were called back from their homes for casting their votes a second time. The presiding office revealed that the vote had started mistakenly without erasing the mock poll results.

Also, in a booth in Tarakeshwar under the Arambag constituency, a local Trinamool leader was seen influencing voters and entering the booth. As per EC sources, the presiding officer of that booth was removed immediately.

Other star candidates whose fates would be decided during the day are sitting Trinamool MPs Kalyan Banerjee (Sreerampore) and former footballer Prasun Banerjee (Howrah), the BJP nominated actress-turned-politician Locket Chatterjee (Hooghly) and senior journalist Rantidev Sengupta (Howrah).

In 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress had won all the seven seats for which voting is underway on Monday.

An electorate of over 1.16 crore, including 60.04 lakh men, 56.86 lakh women and 211 belonging to the third gender, are eligible to choose their representatives from a field of 83 candidates (71 male and 12 female) by exercising their democratic rights in 13,290 polling stations.

After reports of violence and the death of a voter during the previous phases, the EC has decided that all the polling stations in the state will be manned by Central forces. Altogether, 578 companies of central forces have been deployed to assist the state police.

According to an analysis done by the West Bengal Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms, 15 candidates have assets worth over Rs 1 crore, with 23 declaring criminal cases against themselves.

The subsequent phases of polling in the state will take place on May 12 and May 19. Polling in 18 out of the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal have been completed in the first four phases.

The votes will be counted on May 23.