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Amidst stray violence in which 13 people were injured, over 67 per cent of the electorate today voted in West Bengal till 3:00 PM in 17 Lok Sabha constituencies in the fifth and final phase of the polls.
"An estimated 67.34 per cent of the total 2,55,75,744 voters cast their votes till 3:00 PM," Election Commission sources said. Thirteen persons were injured in a clash between CPI(M) and Trinamool Congress supporters at Haroa in North 24 Parganas district under Minakha assembly segment of Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency. Supporters of the rival parties pelted stones and used lathis in the clash which took place near two polling booths at Brahmanchak area of Haroa, police sources said.
The CPIM alleged that TMC workers fired injuring four persons. District Superintendent of Police Tanmoy Roychowdhury, however, said there was no firing and 13 persons were detained. State Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Gupta said voting was so far peaceful except some stray incidents. "We have not yet received report of any major incident on disruption of law and order or complaint of booth jamming or violation of the Model Code of conduct," he said.
Two bombs were allegedly thrown by unidentified persons at the car of former Kolkata deputy mayor Mina Devi at Bowbazar in Kolkata when she was crossing the area. None was injured. At Barisha under Kolkata south constituency, CPI-M candidate Nandini Mukherjee was stopped and allegedly abused by her poltical opponents while she was touring the area. The situation was brought under control by police who were called by Mukherjee.
The CPI-M alleged that the Trinamool Congress was involved, but it was denied by the ruling party. A polling agent of RSP received injuries on his neck in a knife attack allegedly by a TMC worker at Canning West in Joynagar constituency, police said. There were allegations of booth jamming at Bhangor East and Canning East under Jadavpur and Joynagar constituencies respectively by the TMC. Describing the opposition's allegations as baseless, TMC spokesman Derek O' Brien said, "There are 31,392 booths. There were one or two stray incidents outside the booths."
He accused a section of media of having a bias attitude. The constituencies where polling was held were Berhampore, Krishnagar, Ranaghat, Bongaon, Barrackpore, Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat, Jaynagar, Mathurapur, Diamond Harbour, Jadavpur, Kolkata (South), Kolkata (North), Tamluk, Contai and Ghatal. Altogether 188 candidates are in the fray. Prominent candidates are TMC's Sudip Bandyopadhyay in Kolkata North, Dinesh Trivedi in Barrackpore and Sougata Roy in Dum Dum, besides celebrities like Dipak Adhikari (Dev) in Ghatal and Tapas Paul in Krishnagar. Trinamool Yuva President Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of Mamata Banerjee, is contesting from Diamond Harbour. BJP's candidate magician P C Sorcar (Junior) is in the fray in Barasat, WBPCC President Adhir Chowdhury in Berhampore and CPI(M)'s Subhasini Ali from Barrackpore.
Former Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta of the CPI-M and former union minister Tapan Sikdar of the BJP are contesting from Dum Dum.
