West Bengal civic polls: TMC, BJP workers clash in North 24 Parganas

A clash between Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers broke out during civic polls in the state on Sunday.

The BJP West Bengal vice-president Arjun Singh alleged that two Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were vandalised in ward 9 and there is a similar situation across the state.

"Police is arresting the BJP workers, and not letting them vote. All booths have been captured. Only police and goons are voting here. Voters are scared to vote, especially the Bengali population, who are not being allowed to vote. Even TMC's core vote bank, Muslims are not able to vote. Police here is playing one of the three monkeys of Gandhiji," added Singh.

Voting for 108 municipalities across West Bengal has begun from 7 am on Sunday.

The polling will be held till 5 pm, informed the West Bengal State Election Commission.

About 95 lakh (95,59,790) voters are slated to exercise their franchise to elect ward representatives and mayors that are spread across 2,276 wards over 108 municipalities.

The districts where polling is underway are Darjeeling, Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur, Malda, Murshidabad, Nadia, North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, Purba Medinipur, Paschim Medinipur, Jhargram, Purulia, Bankura, Purba Burdwan and Birbhum.

The heavy police force has been deployed at every polling booth, and polling is being conducted with tight security. The civic polls were earlier slated to be held on January 22, 2022. However, the High Court had postponed the elections for 4-6 weeks, citing that the third wave of COVID-19 has hit the state and that the life of the residents of the state will be put to threat if the elections were held.