Bengal poll violence: Governor finds hope after meeting Amit Shah

“The darkest hour is just before the dawn. There will be light at the end of the tunnel. The only message I could get today is if winter comes, can spring be far behind? Good will happen in the days to come,” the governor told reporters when asked what transpired in the meeting.

The meeting between the West Bengal Governor and Union Home Minister comes as widespread violence was reported on Saturday as the state went to polls at over 61,000 booths. During the violence, ballot boxes were looted, set on fire, and dumped in ponds in several areas of the state.

As the situation went out of hand, the State Election Commissioner ordered re-polling in as many as 696 booths on Monday. The measure was taken amid allegations of booth capturing and tampering with ballot boxes.

“No major untoward incidents were reported from the districts where repolling is underway. A couple of stray incidents happened and those were managed by the police,” an SEC official said.

Opposition parties attack Mamata Banerjee govt

The Opposition parties of the state blamed both central and state police forces to prevent violence. “Both the central forces and the state police did not perform their duty to protect voters,” CPI (M) West Bengal Secretary Mohd Salim said on Monday. “Had the schemes brought by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee worked, there would not have been no need for the ruling party to engage goons to intimidate voters,” he added.

Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari commented upon the re-polling and said the BJP submitted a list of 6,000 booths to the SEC, demanding re-election.

“Actually, false voting took place in 18,000 booths at the behest of the TMC. We are collecting more evidence. Our list was overlooked by State Election Commissioner Rajiva Sinha, but we are not surprised. The list of booths suddenly announced by the SEC for repoll was submitted by the TMC,” he claimed.

(With agency inputs)

Updated: 10 Jul 2023, 08:39 PM IST