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Poll violence hit West Bengal once again as voting began on eight constituencies of the state in the sixth phase of Lok Sabha elections 2019.
A BJP activist was killed in Jhargram district in the early hours of Sunday and vehicles in the convoy of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Ghatal, Bharati Ghosh, were vandalised in Ghatal.
Reports say that two BJP workers were injured after they were shot at in East Midnapore’s Bhagavanpur on Saturday night.
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The BJP pointed fingers at the Trinamool Congress in all the incidents.
On the other hand, at least four TMC activists were hospitalised after they were attacked, allegedly by BJP supporters, in Midnapore.
State BJP president Dilip Ghosh is contesting from this seat against TMC’s Manas Bhunia and Congress’ Sambhunath Chatterjee.
The deceased BJP activist was identified as 30-year-old Ramen Singh, who lived in Gopiballabpur of Jhargram. He had been allegedly hit with an iron rod and sustained grievous head injuries. He was rushed to hospital where he was declared dead on arrival, said police.
Read: Lok Sabha Elections 2019 Phase 6
In Ghatal, Ghosh, a former IPS officer, was heckled allegedly by TMC women workers at two polling stations. Ghosh is up against TMC’s Deepak Adhikari, a Tollywood film actor popularly known as Deb.
The BJP candidate was in tears after she was shoved to the ground by the workers. NDTV reports that Ghosh was trying to enter a polling station with her polling agent when she was confronted by the TMC workers.
She is not the first from her party whose convoy was vandalised. The car of sitting BJP lawmaker from Asansol, Babul Supriyo, was damaged allegedly by TMC workers in his own constituency in the fourth phase of the elections on 29 April.
West Bengal is the only state to have recorded poll violence in every Lok Sabha election phase held so far.
A total of eight Lok Sabha constituencies in five districts are voting today. Polling on last 9 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state will be held in the seventh phase on 19 May.
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