The polling for the fifth phase of West Bengal assembly elections began at 7 am on Saturday across 45 assembly segments amid tight security. Reports of violence started pouring in merely an hour after the 5th phase of polling began in the state. We reported how a BJP polling agent was allegedly assaulted in West Bengal’s North Bardhaman district in the early hours today.
Now, in another incident, a BJP polling agent named Ajit Dhar was reportedly assaulted by a TMC worker as he went to cast his vote in the Haroa constituency in the North 24 Parganas district. According to a report by Republic TV, the Trinamool Congress goons allegedly grabbed the BJP leader’s shirt and threatened him against voting for BJP.
BJP alleges that the party agent suffered a fracture on his head due to the assault. According to them, Ajit Dhar was attacked with sticks by by TMC workers, causing the injury to the head. The BJP worker has been admitted at Bardhaman Medical College for treatment.
The TMC worker asked the BJP agent where he was going and demanded to know why he ‘took money’ from the Trinamool government during Cyclone Amphan. This led to a heated exchange of words between the BJP polling agent and the TMC goon.
Simultaneously, incidents of stone-pelting have also been reported at booth numbers 265 and 272 in the Shantinagar area of Bidhannagar, after TMC and BJP workers got into fistfights and verbal spat in front of central forces over allegations of booth rigging. Several women were also reportedly injured in the attack.
According to another BJP polling agent Subrata Ghosh said that he witnessed the assault on Dhar by TMC workers, and after the incident, he could not enter the polling station. According to Ghosh, no BJP poling agent has been allowed to enter the primary school, where 4 election booths have been set up for the elections.
Earlier in the day, we reported that crude bombs were hurled at poll booth 114 in West Bengal’s Minakhan Assembly. The Trinamool Congress party had pinned the blame of the attack on the members of Peerzada Abbasuddin Siddique’s party Indian Secular Front. Besides, incidents of violence have also been reported from outside polling booth 115 in Minakhan Assembly.
Meanwhile, 36.02 per cent voter turnout had been recorded till 11:37 am in West Bengal where voting for the fifth phase of the State’s Assembly elections is underway today.
