Allegations of rigging in Howrah, Trinamool worker, mediamen beaten up

Barring a few untoward incidents, the election to four municipalities in the state went off peacefully on Sunday.

Howrah Municipal Corporation
A Congress supporter, Maya Debnath, was allegedly beaten up by some CPM supporters around 2 pm inside the Giribala Debi School at Sanapara. She was protesting against the alleged rigging carried out by CPM cadres at booth 9 of Ward 40.

Locals alleged that CPM supporters continued the rigging till District Magistrate Khalil Ahmed reached the booth. Later, officers of Rapid Action Force were deployed to bring the situation under control.

Two reporters of a private electronic channel were also allegedly beaten up by some CPM cadres at Ward 1.

In Ward 38, twenty outsiders were detained at the home of Trinamool Congress candidate Mitali Das. Later, Das and her supporters gheraoed Shibpur police station and blocked the road in protest. A worker of Trinamool Congress and three CPM supporters were severely injured in a scuffle at booth 11 of Ward 41 at South Baksara this morning. The Trinamool supporters had alleged that the presiding officer was not checking voters' photo identity cards. Howrah SDO (Sadar) Soumendra Nath Banerjee said around 72 per cent voters cast their ballots today. Voting in three polling stations had to be suspended for some time due to faulty EVMs.

Behrampore Municipality
Minor incidents of lathicharge and some preventive arrests were reported, but all major political parties expressed satisfaction with the way the election was conducted. Murshidabad district magistrate Parwez Ahmad Siddiqui said: “The polls were peaceful. Voter turnout was estimated at around 80 per cent. No incident of violence was reported.” The police recovered the body of local Congress activist Gokul Haldar (32) from a lake at Chaltia of Behrampore. Accepting that Haldar might have been murdered, the district Congress leadership however, claimed it had nothing to do with the election. Refusing to comment on the murder, CPM district secretary Nripen Chowdhury said: “Our margin of votes will go up, but right now we can't predict if we will emerge victorious.”

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