West Bengal witnessed yet another fierce clash between the Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as polling for the Asansol and Ballygunge by-elections took place on Tuesday.
An official said that till 3 pm, 54.40 percent polling was recorded in Asansol, while 34.60 percent in Ballygunge. The overall turnout stood at 44 per cent.
The results will be declared on April 16.
In the past few days, Asansol, a prestige seat for the BJP for the past 10 years that fell vacant after Babul Supriyo joined the TMC, has attracted national attention. While the TMC rested on actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha’s ‘Bihari Babu’ star power for the Lok Sabha seat with a Hindi-speaking population, the BJP relied on fashion designer and Asansol South MLA Agnimitra Paul.
TMC’s Supriyo vs BJP’s Kiya Ghosh was in Ballygunge Lok Sabha seat. In November last year, the bypoll had to be held after the death of former state minister Subrata Mukherjee.
initiate action
In Asansol, the day began with Paul’s remark that intimidation and violence would result in “kill for death”. [reciprocation]Barabani, Pandabeshwar and Jamuria are considered sensitive in the constituency.
He first complained that the state police were inside polling stations to intimidate voters. He then took his agents inside the booths and asked the central forces to take action.
He started touring the entire constituency along with the media, and his convoy was blocked and attacked by alleged TMC workers. He claimed that Paul was trying to influence voters. A scuffle broke out between Paul’s security guards and the crowd, in which one of the security guards is alleged to have been injured. After the video surfaced on social media, the Election Commission sought a report on the incident.
BJP Mandal President Gautam Mandal, who was a polling agent at booth number 182 in Jamuria, was brutally thrashed by TMC workers on the road when he went out for lunch. Now he is fighting for life in a private hospital @India_NHRC please take notice of this atrocity pic.twitter.com/AzmURDJlDy
— Agnimitra Paul BJP (@paulagnimitra1) 12 April 2022
Paul said, “Whatever happens, tell Mamata Banerjee that we will win.”
Sinha, however, seemed at ease as he visited various places and even allowed voters to take selfies with him.
Speaking to News18, he said, “Opposition’s complaints prove that they have given up.”
The BJP’s allegations continued throughout the day with claims of a journalist being stopped and a booth president assaulted. The BJP also targeted the state police, as the TMC attacked the Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF) for “misbehaviour”.
Ballygunge was largely peaceful as Supriyo started his day with a song. Ghosh and CPI(M) Saira Alam made some allegations of misconduct, but did not pursue it.
According to experts, where Asansol is a 50-50 fight, TMC has an edge in Ballygunge.
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