The polling was held in the five districts of Nadia, North and South 24 Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly on Wednesday.
But the day’s most gruesome and tragic incident was reported from Panchla in Howrah where an infant was killed at a polling booth in Howrah district, when alleged Congress workers exploded over 20 bombs there. According to locals month-old Najibul Shah was killed in the stampede that ensued when bombs began raining on voters. The attack on voters began around 9.15 am at the Fakirpara Primary School building in Panchla, which served as polling booths 34 and 34K, respective Presiding Officers Samir Das and Anjan Banerjee told The Indian Express.
“Polling was underway at both booths located on the ground and first floor of the school building, when we heard a series of loud explosions. People began running around in panic. Several men entered the booth and began assaulting polling staff and voters with sticks. I immediately threw myself on the ballot box. Luckily, they didn’t target the election material,” Banerjee said.
In the clash between CPM and the RSP at Taldihi in South 24 Parganas, four people were killed. Three of those killed were relatives of an RSP candidate while the fourth was a CPM supporter. Violence, booth jamming, bombings were reported form other areas as well.
In Basanti, clashes erupted in various polling booths. Around 11 am, armed CPM cadres surrounded the house of RSP’s gram panchayat candidate from Taldihi Ramapada Halder. They dragged out his son Madhusadan Halder (22), and shot him. They then shot Kanak Sardar (26), a relative, and then Krishnapada Halder (55), Ramapada’s brother.
The bodies and the injured lay in the village for three hours, as cadres hurled bombs and started shooting at other houses.
“They killed my father before my eyes. They first beat him up and then dragged him outside and shot him. I ran away when they chased me. They torched our house. They also killed my sister and brother. The police did not come and the bodies lay for hours in the open,” said Sharmistha, Krishnapada Haldar’s daughter.
The clash in Basanti triggered another round of dissent within the Left Front. Kshiti Goswami, the RSP minister in the Cabinet, said: “It will be extremely difficult to keep our party alive if we continue to be dominated like this by the CPM. Basanti has been our stronghold for decades, but the CPM wants to make inroads even within our territory.”
Forward Bloc general secretary Ashok Ghosh said he had called Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to say that the “administration had failed to maintain law and order”. “But if he wanted, he could have prevented such bloodbath within the Left Front,” Ghosh said. The issues are likely to be taken up for discussion when the LF constituents meet on May 22.
At Santipur in Nadia district, two persons were killed and at least three injured when they were assembling crude bombs on Wednesday. Another person was killed and at least four others were injured in Domjur in Howrah when crude bombs exploded in a clash between CPM and Siddiqullah Chowdhury’s PDCI supporters. Four people have been arrested in connection with the incident. “Both parties are blaming each other. We cannot say who started it first,” said officials of the local Domjur police station.
Among the dead, a one-month-old boy
One-month old Najibul — perhaps the youngest victim ever of election violence — was being taken to his mother by grandmother Moimuna Bibi for his timely feed. But unfortunately, they both got caught in a stampede triggered by bomb blasts at the polling booth in Panchla’s Fakirpara Primary School. Police officers rushed the child and another injured youth to the nearby Gabberia General Hospital. Medical Superintendent Dr Debashish Mondal said no external injuries were found on the child's body. According to the doctor, the actual cause of death can be ascertained only after the postmortem report is released by staff at the Uluberia district hospital. Howrah District Magistrate Khalil Ahmed said the child could have died due to “sunstroke”.