“Though the exact figure is not yet available, but the turnout at 176 booths was more than 80 per cent. Apart from some stray incidents, the election was by and large peaceful,” District Magistrate of East Midnapore Choten Dhendhup Lama told The Indian Express.

“There were some incidents where some people tried to create disturbances and, we had to arrest nine persons in this connection. Apart from that two persons were injured during the electoral process,” Lama added.

However, the CPI(M) accused the Opposition Trinamool Congress of spreading ‘silent terror’ during the by-elections and virtually admitted that they have little chance of winning. The Trinamool Congress too charged back, saying polls were over all peaceful.

“How can we win in this situation? There was no problem during the polling process, at least at the booths. But more than 3,000 of our supporters were not allowed to go out of their houses. Many were driven out of Nandigram,” said CPI(M)’s zonal secretary of Nandigram Ashok Bera.

CPI candidate Paramananda Bharati also alleged that their supporters were mercilessly beaten up in Reyapara and Sonachura area and four of them had to be hospitalised.

“Armed miscreants backed by the Trinamool Congress went from house to house in different areas, attacked our supporters and threatening others. They were not allowed to cast their votes. Had they have voted, the result would have been in our favour,” Bharati said.

The CPI(M) and CPI both claimed to have approached the Election Commission as well as the police with hundreds of such complaints, but no action wad taken.

The Trinamool leadership, however, alleged that it was the CPI(M) which made abortive attempts to terrorise the villagers.

“This was an unexpected election. The CPI(M) cadres have injured four of our supporters at Reyapara and assaulted others at different places. However, they failed to terrorise the people of Nandigram and now at the face of defeat they are making absurd allegations,” TMC leader and MLA from Contai (South) Suvendu Adhikari said.

Firoza Bibi, Trinamool candidate for this by-election, said: “The election has been peaceful and we will win. The Opposition tried to create disturbances but they were not successful due to the presence of the police.”