At the end of the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections, West Bengal remained on top when it came to voter turnout and poll violence.

While the voter turnout in West Bengal was over 75 per cent, there were also reports of violence from some poll stations in Asansol – the parliamentary constituency of BJP MP Babul Supriyo – and other constituencies where polling was held today.

Advertisement

The car belonging to Supriyo, a Union minister, was vandalised outside a polling booth in the morning at Barabani. Supriyo was unhurt in the incident.

Supriyo had reached the polling booth following reports of electoral malpractices. He alleged that TMC workers had prevented BJP’s polling agents from entering the poll station.

Read More: Babul Supriyo’s car vandalised, clashes in booths in Asansol

“I have come here just to see how the polling process is underway, but I found that voters are not being allowed to cast their ballots. Our fight is to establish democracy… It is shameful that I am saying this in a democratic country,” the minister said.

The minister, however, reportedly got involved in a heated argument with polling officers.

The Election Commission has ordered an FIR against Supriyo for trespassing into a polling booth and intimidating an officer.

At booth number 199, TMC workers clashed with BJP supporters and security personnel. The TMC claimed that there was no BJP polling agent at the booth.

Elsewhere in the Lok Sabha constituency, clashes erupted between TMC workers and security forces. The BJP objected to TMC’s demand for polling to be held despite absence of central forces.

In Jemua, the villagers boycotted polls due to the absence of central forces at the polling station.

When asked to comment on the violence in Asansol, TMC candidate Moon Moon Sen said that she was unaware as she got up late because her “bed tea was not given” to her on time.

Read More | Got bed tea late, woke up very late: Moon Moon Sen on why she didn’t know of Asansol violence

“I have not met my seniors yet and when we will sit together I will know where and why violence took place. Thoda toh hoga hi, har jagah hota hai (It happens everywhere). Violence is much less now compared to before,” she was quoted as saying by ANI.

Everything from intimidation to EVM destruction was reported from Bengal.

At Birbhum, TMC supporters were accused of booth capturing and threatening voters, including women, in some areas.

There were reports of attacks on the houses of BJP supporters by TMC workers in Birbhum’s Nalhai and Nanur. At the same time, TMC claimed that the houses of their supporters were also attacked by BJP activists.

Booth capturing was reported from Birbhum district’s Rampurhat and at Ketugram in East Burdwan.

Read: Lok Sabha Elections 2019 Phase 4

Central forces were rushed to some places to ensure the safety of voters.

In Birbhum’s Suri, election commission officials and security force personnel had to enter a village to safely take voters to polling stations.

Security personnel had to fire in the air to disperse a mob in Dubrajpur which vandalised a polling booth. Dubrajpur is part of Birbhum constituency.

The EC said that around 250 villagers tried to vandalise the booth after the security force personnel refused to allow 10-15 young boys from using their mobile phones at the polling booth.

“The villagers started hurling stones and tried to break the door. The jawan went inside the booth to protect the EVMs and fired one bullet on the roof,” the EC said.

But TMC candidate from Birbhum Satabdi Roy claimed that two people were injured in the firing.

Baharampur MP and senior Congress leader Adhir Chowdhury accused the TMC workers of stopping the voters from coming to the polling stations in certain areas and capturing booths in some places.

Poll violence in Bengal has been reported in the previous three phases of the elections.

In spite of the violence, long queues of men and women were seen outside polling booths in Baharampur, Krishnanagar, Ranaghat, Burdwan East, Burdwan-Durgapur, Asansol, Birbhum and Bolpur constituencies.

Besides Supriyo, Sen, Chowdhury and Roy, the other prominent candidates in the fray are BJP’s SS Ahluwalia, TMC’s Mumtaz Sanghamitra and Mahua Moitra.

West Bengal will vote on all seven rounds of the Lok Sabha battle. The votes will be counted on 23 May.

Check for Elections 2019 news

(With inputs from agencies.)