Violence mars civic polls in Bengal: Is TMC losing control?

KOLKATA: The ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal allegedly unleashed violence and resorted to booth capture in the civic polls on Saturday .Sources said the violence sends out signals that that the party is losing the trust of people who voted Mamata Banerjee to power in May 2011. Journalists were attacked in several areas and a television channel reporter was allegedly threatened with gang-rape.

With assembly polls a few months away , Trinamool Congress couldn't afford a repeat of the shock of the 2014 Lok Sabha election when it lagged in many parts of Salt Lake and Asansol.

Determined to take no chances, the ruling party let loose a whirlwind of violence in the peaceful and posh Salt Lake township along with trouble-torn Asansol.

The jump in the hourly polling percentage in the afternoon -the big spike was when violence was raging across the township -bore out the tale-tell signs of what was going on inside the booths. The panchayat bypolls in Jamuria and Raniganj in Burdwan and Murshidabad's Illambazar and civic polls in Bally were no exception.

The dye was cast last Saturday when the state Election Commission directed BJP MP from Asansol Babul Supriyo to stay away from the town, but imposed no such strictures on Trinamool Congress MLAs Sujit Bose and Paresh Pal in Salt Lake. They entered Bindhannagar during the polls and watched as violence took place.

Salt Lake residents said they had never witnessed such violence the four civic polls since Bidhannagar Municipality came into being in 1995. In scenes reminiscent of the Left's heydays in the '80s and '90s, goons from outside Salt Lake marched into polling centres, threatened voters and walked unhindered into booths. Allegations of false polling were rampant.

Wherever they faced resistance, the “outsiders“ retaliated violently , even hurling bombs at the bhadralok voters of this posh township.Even journalists were not spared. At least 12 of them -including four from Ei Samay and a TOI photographer -were beaten up. The police stood mute spectators.