Kolkata, Oct 6 (IANS): Amid scattered events of tension in the ongoing bypolls for Nandigram Assembly Constituency in East Midnapore district and Rejinagar seat in Murshidabad district of West Bengal on Tuesday, the average polling percentage in the two constituencies for the first six hours till 1 p.m. was 58.16.
Rejinagar had polled 56 per cent votes, and in Nandigram the percentage was higher at 60.32.
“Considering that the polling will continue till 6 p.m., it will not be surprising if the final polling percentage crosses the 80 per cent mark, which will be quite high as per bypoll standards, said an insider from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal.
Meanwhile, reports of scattered violence had continued coming to the CEO’s office in the last two hours, with the maximum complaints lodged by Congress. However, the most surprising was that there has been no reaction to the bypolls from the Mamata Banerjee-led Mamata All India Trinamool Congress camp since morning.
This faction is not in the race at Nandigram since its candidate, Sanchita Dey Pradhan, withdrew her nomination at the last moment. Although Rabiul Alam Chowdhury is the candidate from this faction in Trinamool Congress in Rejinagar, he has been hardly visible since morning.
As far as the information available so far, the Mamata Banerjee-led faction was even unable to field polling agents at most of the booths at Rejinagar,
The former state Congress president in West Bengal and the former five-time party Lok Sabha member, Adhikar Ranjan Chowdhury, started a sit-in demonstration along with his supporters in Baharampur town in Murshidabad district, alleging electoral malpractices and excesses by the state police on the common voters at Rejinagar.
“The police atrocities in Rejinagar over the past few days have already made the common voters scared of going to the polling booths. But even those who were interested in voting and tried to approach the polling booths on Tuesday were stopped. People’s rights are being taken away,” Chowdhury alleged.
