West Bengal Panchayat Elections: Election-related violence claimed the lives of at least 15 persons on Saturday when voting took place for the West Bengal panchayat elections. Sukanta Majumdar, the state president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), wrote to the Union Home Minister asking for help in stopping the violence, claiming that “free and fair elections are beyond imagination” and that “democracy in West Bengal has been strangled to death.” JP Nadda, the head of the BJP, called her as well, asking about the violence from earlier in the day.
Multiple Parties Lose Members in Violent Clashes
Eight Trinamool Congress (TMC) members, three members of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and one representative from each of the BJP and Congress were among those killed. Two other deaths have not yet had their identities confirmed. In Murshidabad, three TMC members and a Congress worker were slain, while Cooch Behar saw the deaths of two people (one each from the BJP and TMC). In East Burdwan, three workers—two from CPI(M) and one from TMC—died. One TMC employee passed away in Malda, and another TMC employee died in South 24 Parganas. For the West Bengal panchayat elections, in which 5.67 crore individuals who live in the state’s rural districts are eligible to vote, voting began at 7 am on Saturday under tight security.
Multiple Party Workers Lose Their Lives in Attacks
TMC employee Babar Ali was slain in the Kapasdanga neighbourhood of Murshidabad district, one of the most afflicted by violence. When he was taken to Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital in Baharampur, he was pronounced dead. On Friday, a crude bomb explosion in Rejinagar, Murshidabad district, claimed the life of a TMC employee. In the district of Khargram, a second Trinamool worker was fatally stabbed. An unnamed group of criminals shot and killed BJP poll worker Madhav Biswas on Saturday in Falimari, Cooch Behar district. Rajibul Hoque, a member of the CPI(M) from Ausgram in the East Burdwan district, passed away from his wounds at the NRS Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. He was taken to the hospital after being hurt in a collision. Hoque was initially transported to a hospital in Burdwan before being transferred to one in Kolkata as his condition deteriorated. In East Burdwan’s Nandigram, a TMC employee named Gautam Roy was killed following an alleged attack with bamboo sticks by CPI(M) members. After being taken to Katwa Sub-Divisional Hospital, he was pronounced brought dead.
BJP Leader Rahul Sinha Slams West Bengal Elections as a “Farce in the Name of Election”
Rahul Sinha, a BJP leader, responded to the violence that marred the panchayat elections by calling them a “farce in the name of election.” ‘What is happening now will continue until the Election Commission and the government conspire and decide that the ruling TMC will rig the election. Although central soldiers arrived here, they were not directed to booths. The BJP and other parties are being attacked by the TMC. It appears to be an election-related farce. We cannot refer to this as a popular vote,’ Sinha said the news agency ANI.
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