Former police officer and Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for Debra constituency Bharati Ghosh on Thursday alleged that her polling agent was not being allowed to enter a polling booth in Nowpara area by goons from Trinamool Congress (TMC) during the second phase of assembly elections in West Bengal.
Speaking to the media, Ghosh said: "In Nowpara, booth 22, Anchal-I, my polling agent has been surrounded by 150 goons of TMC. He has not been allowed to enter the polling booth and this drama has been going on for the last 1.5 hours."
"In Barunia, voters are getting threatened. They are getting threatened before entering the booth. We are receiving sporadic reports from other booths as well," she added.
The BJP candidate also called on the Election Commission (EC) to take strong action against the culprits.
"'Parivartan' (change) will happen by 200 per cent," she remarked.
Polling for the second phase of West Bengal elections began at 7 am this morning.
Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) troops guarding the polling booths in the Purba Medinipur district were seen helping the senior citizens who came out there to vote.
Polling in a total of 30 assembly constituencies from the districts of South 24 Parganas, Bankura, Paschim Medinipur and Purba Medinipur in being held. Out of the 171 candidates in the fray, 152 are men and the remaining are women.
Among these candidates, two are undoubtedly the most prominent figures, that is, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her former ministerial colleague Suvendu Adhikari, who had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in December last year.
After the high-voltage Nandigram contest, it is the Debra assembly seat that set the poll fever high for the second phase of state elections. In the Debra seat, BJP has fielded former IPS officer Bharati Ghosh against Trinamool Congress's Humayun Kabir, also an ex-IPS officer.
Notably, Ghosh once happened to be close to Mamata. She joined the BJP in 2019 ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
( With inputs from ANI )
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