Election for the 144-seat Municipal Corporation is proceeding in Kolkata, amidst the reports of violence and complaints of false voting being informed from the ground. Early Saturday, clashes broke between TMC workers and those belonging to CPI(M), while people had stepped out of their houses to cast their votes.
The violence between the two party workers erupted despite the tight security measures implemented by the security officers in the city.
Voters in the city also complained of a large-scale false voting by the TMC workers, though the party refuted the allegations, such small incidents were expected, and assuring that no big incident had happened. A BJP candidate from one of the wards also complained of proxy voting.
Until early morning, the voting rate was pretty low, however, it was expected to gear up and escalate as the day proceeded.
Over 37 lakh voters will be deciding the fate of 1,077 candidates contesting the polls. This election is a testing stone for the rulling party of West Bengal – TMC, as well as the ruling party of the nation – the BJP, and of course the Left.
It will prove the support the TMC has been able to retain in the city and the amount of voters the BJP has been able to attract, since the party has been focusing a lot into the state ever since its historic victory in the Lok Sabha polls. For the left, it will prove whether their measures taken to impress the voters and make a comeback have been fruitful or not.
Tight security by the Kolkata police was deployed at all the polling stations. Besides, three companies of the Central Reserve Police Force were called in from Darjeeling. To monitor the situation in the sensitive detected polling booths, the police were keeping an eye via aerial drones.
Tags: BJP CPI(M) Kolkata Kolkata Municipal Corporation election TMC
