| Assam
polling claims 6 including 3 CRPF men
Samudra Gupta
Kashyap
Guwahati,
May 10: The pre-poll violence unleashed by the banned ULFA that
left over 40 persons — including a BJP candidate and over 25
AGP workers — dead, hardly had any impact in Assam today. The
day-long polling to the state Assembly turned out to be relatively
peaceful though six persons, including three CRPF jawans were killed
in what seemed to be incidents not related to elections.
The security blanket comprising 75,000 security personnel, including
the Army, prompted people to come out in large numbers despite cloudy
weather conditions in the morning, and the turnout reached the 65
per cent mark.
While exit polls and opinion polls projected the Congress as the
favourite to form the next government, AGP president and state Chief
Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta said it was the AGP-BJP combine
that would finally get the people’s verdict to form the new
government.
The AGP-BJP combine, that also has the All Bodo Students’ Union
(ABSU) and the Autonomous State Demand Committee (United) as its
allies, is hoping to reach the magic figure of 63 needed to get
a simple majority.
Congress leaders, however, reiterated that the majority of voters
had voted for their party. ‘‘The people came out to translate
their anger against the AGP into votes in favour of our party,’’
said Congress spokesman Pankaj Bora.
The three CRPF personnel were killed in an ambush laid by the ULFA-NSCN
combine at Deopani under Bokajan police station in the Karbi Anglong
hill district early today morning. At Salbari in Kokrajhar district
in western Assam, two Bodos were hacked to death, allegedly by a
Santhal mob, around 9 am. Later in the afternoon, one Santhal was
killed in a retaliatory attack in the same area.
There were also some minor incidents, including one in which BJP
nominee Pratul Chandra Deb in Katlicherra constituency in the Barak
Valley was detained by the police when he allegedly tried to capture
a polling booth.
At Mancachar, Independent candidate Amzad Hussain was injured as
supporters of Aminul Islam of the AGP beat him up after he pulled
out a revolver and threatened them.
There was hardly any feeling of fear in the minds of the people
even Nalbari district, one of the worst-affected by the pre-poll
violence, with people queuing up even half-an-hour before the polling
stations opened. In one polling booth in Dharmapur constituency,
where six supporters of AGP general secretary Chandra Mohan Patowari
were killed by the ULFA last week, voters waited till Patowari arrived
at 7:30 am to cast his vote.
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