SEC orders repoll in 500 booths today

Kolkata: Even after the panchayat elections anarchy continues in many districts as the post poll violence claimed five lives while the West Bengal state election commission has ordered a re-poll in nearly 500 booths.

Four of the victims were Trinamul Congress workers. Among them, two were from Bhupatinagar in East Midnapore.

They were Bakul Barik and Jhota Maikap. Late on Monday night,  they were killed after bombs exploded at Arjunpur village. According to the local residents, bombs were being made at bush in front of Bakul’s home.

Suddenly an explosion took place there. Bakul and Jhota were found lying in a pool of blood. They were rushed to Egra Sub-divison Hospital where they were declared brought dead.

Local BJP leaders alleged that the bombs were being made for using them while taking control of the pockets in the post-poll days.

South 24 Parganas which witnessed the maximum number of killings — four out of seventeen — during the polling again came in the news for another murder. The victim, Subid Ali (23), was known to be a Trinamul worker at Chuprijhara gram panchayat area in Kultali.

After the polls were over, he was attacked by a group of workers from the CPI(M), BJP and SUCI late in the evening, his family members claimed. Subid was beaten to death at Raniradhal area. In Nadia, which came after South 24 Parganas in the list of districts where most of the killings took place on Monday, an outgoing panchayat member Pranab Biswas of the Trinamul was hacked to death on Tuesday morning. He was the outgoing member of Duttaphulia gram panchayat. His wife Amari contested as a Trinamul candidate in the rural polls this time. At around 12 pm a gang of miscreants, covering their faces, stormed Biswas’ home at Baranberia and hurled bombs before opening fire. The accused then chopped Biswas to death with a sharp weapon.

Biswas’ assailants fled as his neighbours rushed to his home after getting the sound of bombs and firing. Biswas was declared brought dead at Ranaghat Sub Division Hospital. According to the district Trinamul leaders, the BJP was involved in the murder because Biswas and his aides had resisted an attempt of booth capturing by the BJP workers during the polling a day before.

In North Dinajpur a man, Gour Sarkar, was found murdered under mysterioys circumstances. He went missing after going out for morning-walk on Tuesday. Later the body was found in a roadside bush near a housing apartment at Udaipur in Raiganj. Blood stains were found on the face. Furious over the murder the local residents blocked Balurghat state highway with the body.

They alleged that some Trinamul workers visited Sarkar at his home on Monday and threatened him to not to go to cast his ballot. But Sarkar ignored their threat and cast his vote for which he paid the price, according to them. The police faced protest while trying to lift the road blockade. Meanwhile the death toll in the poll-day clashes rose to 19 as two persons succumbed to their injuries.

One of them was Zinadul Haque (37), a Trinamul worker, who died at a private hospital in Siliguri during the day. He became the target of faction feud within the ruling party when he was going to cast vote at Suktabari in Coochbehar on Monday. Another victim was Sushil Das, also a Trinamul worker in his mid-forties. He was a resident of Habra in North 24 Parganas.

He was injured during a clash when the polling was underway. Das was admitted to Barasat State General Hospital where he succumbed to injuries. On Wednesday the state poll panel will conduct a re-poll from 7 am to 5 pm in around 500 booths where violence and electoral mal-practices were reported while the polling a day before. The figure was calculated following recommendations by the district poll observers.