Trinamool Candidate Chased Out Of Poll Booth, Hit On Head, Alleges Party

A candidate from Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress was chased out of a polling booth in Bengal today as voting was on in the third phase of the assembly election in the state. Sujata Mondol Khan was chased with lathis by a group of people in the middle of a field. Ms Banerjee said "BJP workers chased Trinamool candidate Sujata Mondal and hit her on head near a polling booth".

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has claimed that a security personnel was injured.

Sujata Mondal Khan, the Trinamool candidate from Arambagh, was chased out of a voting booth in Arandi area of the constituency.

She had accused the opposition BJP of creating chaos and threatening Trinamool supporters in Arambagh amid the voting. The BJP has denied the allegation.

"They have inflicted serious injury on our Scheduled Caste candidate Sujata, when she visited a booth. They also hit another candidate in Khanakul. In Canning East, security forces prevented our nominee Shaukat Mollah from entering a booth. There had been numerous such instances of attack on our candidates, party workers across the state," Ms Banerjee said at a rally in Alipurduar district, adding that she has received at least 100 complaints of assault and violence since morning, and that the Election Commission has been duly informed but to no avail.

"At booth no 45 in Batanal, despite pressing the symbol of TMC, the vote is going for the BJP. I believe that I will get the blessings of the people. In Arandi, our workers have been beaten up. They (BJP) are thinking that by creating violence, they will get the Arambagh seat. They are mistaking. I am the kind of person who does not fear death," Ms Khan told news agency ANI.

Villagers in Arandi, however, claimed that the candidate had barged into homes and misbehaved with them. Visuals show her locked in argument with villagers.

This morning, four voting machines and an equal number of VVPATs, or paper-trail machines, were found in the house of a TMC leader in Uluberia Uttar assembly seat in Howrah district, following which a Bengal election official was suspended. Locals surrounded the Trinamool leader's house and CRPF personnel had to be deployed in the area to keep peace.

A Trinamool candidate from Khanakul assembly seat, Najibul Karim, was surrounded by BJP supporters in a village in the constituency which falls in Hooghly district. After hearing about incidents of alleged rigging by the BJP, when the TMC candidate arrived at the polling station, BJP supporters surrounded him. Later, a huge continent of CRPF and Bengal Police personnel arrived the spot to diffuse the tension and rescued the TMC candidate.

In another part of Hooghly district, a woman was murdered early this morning. While the BJP claims she was murdered by Trinamool "goons", Bengal's ruling party has denied any role in the murder. The woman's son is reportedly a BJP worker.

Bengal votes in seven phases for the 294 assembly seats and the results will be announced on May 2.

(With inputs from PTI and ANI)