The Trinamool Congress on Monday wrote to the Election Commission after central forces opened fire at a polling booth in Dubrajpur in the Birbhum parliamentary constituency of West Bengal, ANI reported.
“Central forces have created a reign of terror in minds of voters and have also urged the voters to cast their vote for BJP,” the party alleged. Voting in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections is under way in parts of West Bengal.
The ruling party accused Bharatiya Janata Party candidates of violating the Model Code of Conduct. “There were various instances where on instructions of BJP leaders, central forces acted in a manner which is not conducive to free and fair elections,” the Trinamool Congress added.
Trinamool Congress candidate and Birbhum MP Satabdi Roy visited the booth where voting was stalled. She claimed that a woman and a youth were injured in the violence that reportedly started after a dispute between villagers and security forces over depositing mobile phones, ABP Ananda reported.
“Who has given the central forces the right to tell people to vote for the BJP?” Roy asked. “They are asking whether the BJP agent is present in the booth. Are they the BJP’s agents sent here to ensure Narendra Modi’s victory? They are being rude to people, threatening to fire and using abusive language. If they behave properly, there won’t be any problem.”
Meanwhile, the BJP also approached the Election Commission in New Delhi, alleging that Trinamool Congress workers have “hijacked democracy in the state [West Bengal]” and demanded the deployment of central forces in all the polling booths in the state in the remaining three phases, PTI reported.
A BJP delegation, including Union ministers Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Vijay Goel and the party’s media head Anil Baluni, met the poll panel’s top officials and submitted a memorandum.
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