Election in 108 municipalities across West Bengal will go for polls on Sunday between 7 am and 5 pm. About 95 lakh voters are slated to exercise their franchise to elect ward representatives and mayors. Opposition parties alleged that attacks against them have intensified in the last 24-hours. Of the 2,276 wards spread over 108 municipalities, the ruling Trinamool Congress has already won four uncontested.
At North 24-Parganas Kamarhati where TMC MLA Madan Mitra is the party candidate, bombs were hurled outside the residence of the CPM nominee from ward 25 on Friday night. Attacks were also allegedly carried out in Barrackpore.
A delegation of the Left’s women’s organization went to the state election commission office on Saturday to demand closed-circuit television cameras be operational during the poll hours.
In the civic bodies, including Calcutta Municipal Corporation where polls were held earlier, CCTV cameras were either not working or were found focussed elsewhere. Some of the candidates and their polling agents in Calcutta were assaulted while polling was on.
The CPM has also demanded that Howrah (Rural) superintendent of police Soumya Ray to be removed from maintaining law and order during the polls because of his alleged involvement in the Anis Khan murder case. Ray is also the husband of a TMC legislator from South 24-Parganas.
The polls for Howrah Municipal Corporation, however, is yet to be declared as the defining process of Bally from Howrah is yet to be completed. In Howrah district there will be polling only in Uluberia Municipality.
In Darjeeling district, there will be polling in Darjeeling Municipality only, while there will be polling in multiple civic bodies in other districts.
In Coochbehar, polling will be in six municipalities. North 24 Parganas will witness polls in 25 municipalities.
Barrackpore sub division is considered to be most volatile as it has seen regular violence since 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Hooghly district will have polls in 12 municipalities and some belts had witnessed violence during 2021 assembly polls. In Murshidabad, there will be polls in seven municipalities while it is 10 for Nadia and five for Birbhum.
In South 24 Parganas, polling will be in six municipalities, including Diamond Habour, which is under the Diamond Habour LS seat of Trinamool national secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
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