Kolkata: The office of the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) was flooded with complaints of poll-related tension and violence, even as the average percentage of polling till 11 a.m. for the nine Lok Sabha constituencies in the state was relatively higher at 28.10 compared to the national average of 26.30 per cent during the same time.
As per statistics available from the CEO’s office, as many as 1,450 complaints till 11 a.m. were recorded. The maximum number of complaints have come from CPI(M) at 142, followed by BJP at 76 and nine from Congress. Not a single complaint has been registered from the ruling Trinamool Congress.
Till 11 a.m. Basirhat recorded the maximum polling percentage of 32.57 followed by Diamond Harbour at 31.51, Mathurapur at 30.50, Jaynagar at 30.25, Barasat at 27.86, Jadavpur at 26.69, Dum Dum at 24.83 and finally Kolkata-Dakshin and Kolkata each at 24.02 per cent.
Reports of poll-related tension continued in the last two hours as well.
At Bhangar under the Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency, a police official was severely injured getting caught amid clashes between Trinamool Congress and All India Secular Front activists. He was rushed back to Kolkata and admitted to the state-run SSK Medical College & Hospital.
At Jadavpur, a camp office of Trinamool Congress was ransacked and the party activists sitting there were severely beaten up. At Ballygunge under the Kolkata- Dakshin constituency, Roshonara Mishra, an election agent of CPI(M) candidate Saira Shah Halim was heckled and driven out of the booth allegedly by the ruling party activists.
On receiving the information, Halim reached the spot and escorted Mishra, the daughter of CPI(M) politburo member Dr Suryakanta Mishra, back to the polling booth. However, even after entering the booth, she continued facing the abuses of the ruling party workers.
–IANS