Mamata Banerjee Alleges Central Force "Atrocities" in Bhowanipore as Final Phase Concludes
Visiting several polling booths in her Bhabanipur assembly constituency where voting is underway, Banerjee alleged that democratic norms have been severely compromised by the authorities this assembly election
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday accused the Central forces of unleashing atrocities at the behest of the BJP on the Trinamul Congress polling agents and workers in her home turf, Bhowanipore. Before casting her vote in the second and final phase of Bengal elections, Ms Banerjee toured her Assembly constituency for a first-hand assessment of the ground realities and claimed that the elections were not "free and fair".
This was the first time in the TMC supremo’s political career, at least in the last 15 years, when she was compelled to step out of her residence at Harish Chatterjee Street in Kalighat more than once on the poll day after getting complaints from her party leaders. In the previous elections, Ms Banerjee was seen outside only when she went to cast her vote at a booth located in a school, Mitra Institution, on Harish Mukherjee Road.
The CM started giving rounds at booths immediately after the polling got underway on Wednesday morning. By then, the state police and the Central forces asked her brother Kartik Banerjee and his wife Kajari Banerjee, who is a TMC councillor of Ward Number 73, to leave their roadside party camps, as four persons were already present at each of them.
Ms Banerjee's first destination was Chetla, where Kolkata mayor and urban development minister Firhad Hakim told her about the excess of the Central forces, which allegedly visited his home and threatened him on Tuesday night.
Ms Banerjee then travelled to Chakraberia, where she spoke to the TMC councillor of Ward No. 70 Ashim Bose. The TMC chief was seen talking over the phone while sitting next to Mr Bose near a booth. Suddenly her BJP challenger at the Bhowanipore seat, Suvendu Adhikari, also reached there with his followers. The two leaders almost came face-to-face, with barely 50 metres' distance between them. Taking potshots at the chief minister, the Bengal Leader of the Opposition sarcastically said she is about to lose her “chair”.
The CM later told the media: “I'm still in the chair, also at our party. We want the voting to be peaceful. People should be allowed to exercise their rights. Some observers have, however, been brought here from different places. Many police officers, who don't understand Bengal, have also been brought here. Last night, I stayed awake all through due to the tortures unleashed across Bengal.”
“Visiting police stations, the observers created pressure for the arrest of all the TMC agents and party block presidents. I had to rush to Chetla in the morning after the arrest of our party's youth block president. I didn't visit the police station, though. Bobby (Mr Hakim) secured his release later. At around 2 am, CRPF personnel, without state police, attacked the house of Babai (Mr Bose), who is very popular. His wife, who was alone at home with their kid then, told them he was away for party work. But they kicked at the doors and warned that he should not be involved in any work…” Ms Banerjee said.
In the afternoon, Ms Banerjee cast her vote and claimed, “People were tortured at many places in South 24 Parganas, Nadia and Hooghly. The Central forces took control of everything everywhere. I never saw such a situation. Many people were assaulted. Even women, who were at home, were not spared in my area. Most seats witnessed slow voting. Still, I'm confident of the TMC victory with a two-thirds majority.”
The Bhowanipore constituency, which is witnessing a prestige fight between Ms Banerjee and Mr Adhikari in this election, remained tense throughout the day. Mr Adhikari and his followers kept confronting the TMC workers with allegations of bogus voting by outsiders that prompted Central forces to lathicharge the crowd outside a booth.
