One injured by crude bomb during Kolkata civic polls, low turnout till afternoon

A man sustained an injury in the leg when a crude bomb went off in the north-eastern part of Kolkata on Sunday morning during the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) elections, police said.

The incident took place near the polling station at Taki Boy's School in KMC ward No 36. The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Congress traded charges and accused each other of ferrying in outsiders to create trouble.

Locals alleged that an elderly man, who was passing by, was also injured by splinters but police did not confirm this till 11.30 am

Leaders of opposition parties, as well as the TMC, levelled allegations of intimidation and booth jamming in several areas.

BJP leader Meena Devi Purohit, who has won from ward No 22 thrice since 2005 because of her popularity, alleged that she and her followers were attacked by TMC supporters at the polling station in Maheswari Boy's School in central Kolkata in the morning.

Dismissing allegations that TMC was orchestrating all the violence, transport minister Firhad Hakim, who is contesting the polls, said, "They brought similar charges during the March-April assembly polls in Kolkata. The Election Commission of India looked into all the allegations and found them to be baseless."

TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee dismissed the BJP's allegations and said strong action will be taken if any TMC worker is found to be involved in the alleged violence and electoral malpractice.

There are more than 4500 polling booths in around 370 main and auxiliary polling stations in Kolkata.

The BJP, Congress and CPI(M) raised allegations of violence and electoral malpratice at around 100 polling stations till 1 pm when the polling rate stood at 36.8 %

Governor Jadgeep Dhankhar and his wife cast their votes in a booth set up at the office of the principal accountant general. The governor said he asked his security personnel not to enter the polling station.

Two crude bombs also went off near Khanna cinema in north Kolkata but there was no report of injury.

Security was tightened all over the Bengal capital and its entry points because of the polls. Prohibitory order under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) was clamped within 100 metres of all polling stations.

More than 23,500 policemen were deployed to ensure the safety of voters and the candidates contesting in the city's 144 civic wards. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) currently controls 126 of these seats.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which won five seats in the 2015 polls, alleged that the ruling party had ferried in outsiders to create trouble.

The BJP also lodged a complaint with the state election commission saying the ruling party unleashed violence all over the city so that voters stayed away from polling stations.

The party announced that its workers will start an agitation from 1 pm and intensify the protest after polling was over.

Though the division bench of the Calcutta high court chief justice turned the BJP's plea on Friday, it did not close the matter and said it will hear all parties again on December 23 and by then the state government and the SEC have to file their reports.

During the hearing, the SEC and the state government told the division bench that adequate police arrangements have been made. Reacting to this, the chief justice said, "We have kept it (the matter) pending to see if what has been stated in this court is being complied with."

Kolkata police commissioner Soumen Mitra, who inspected the security arrangements and ordered a random inspection of vehicles in the city and at its entry points, told the media on Saturday that all precautions had been taken.

The state election commission (SEC) installed security cameras inside all polling booths, counting centres and facilities to be used for storing around 6500 electronic voting machines (EVMs) following an order passed by the Calcutta high court on December 16. The petition was filed by the BJP.

The BJP had also moved the high court seeking deployment of central armed police forces (CAPF). It told the court that BJP candidates and voters may face violence on Sunday and cited the alleged killings after the March-April assembly polls as the ground for such apprehension.

The BJP's petition was rejected by a single bench on Thursday and the division bench of chief justice Prakash Shrivastava and justice Rajarshi Bhardwaj on Friday night. The party challenged the order in the Supreme Court but no hearing was held.