Amid the first phase of Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal, confrontations between TMC and BJP supporters were experienced. Voting in Cooch Behar was disrupted by a storm of violence, with the assault of people and stone-throwing incidents. Anant Barman, an office-bearer of the local TMC, as well as the Chairperson of the Bhetaguri Panchayat, was hospitalized after the blasts that took place yesterday. However, he had already been discharged from the hospital.
BJP had won all three seats in the region in 2019. As of 9 am, Cooch Behar recorded 15.2%, Alipurduar 15.91%, and Jalpaiguri 14.13% voter turnout.
At the same time, the political rivals charged their counterparts with voter intimidation and booth agent violence. The northern part of the constituency has seen improperly parked crude oil containers towing black smoke, and allegations of arson at temporary election offices in areas like Toofanganj and Dabgram-Fulbari have begun surfacing as well. The Western Bemperature governor’s office endured a lot of phone calls talking about poll violence, and Cooch Behar seemed to be the source of all these calls.
The specter of violence harkens back to the 2021 assembly elections, where five individuals, including a first-time voter, lost their lives in clashes in Cooch Behar. Tensions persist between supporters of Union Minister Nisith Pramanik and State Minister Udayan Guha.
As a means of coping with turmoil, the BJP set up a help desk in Kolkata for lodging police violence complaints for the Lok Sabha Elections. The vice-chairperson of TMC, Mr. Abhishek Banerjee, who is in charge of Kolkata, looks over the disaster from his party office in Kolkata.
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