Violence, attacks in West Bengal third phase of Assembly elections

Five candidates including two women were assaulted while clashes between rival political groups erupted during the third phase of polling in West Bengal on TuesdayHowever despite the violence voter enthusiasm was high with 8233 per cent of voters casting their ballots Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee however alleged ldquoblatant misuserdquo of central forces to ldquoinfluence votersrdquoldquoECISVEEP continues to be a mute spectator while men in uniform are being misused at several places to openly intimidate TMC voters and influence many to vote in favour of one partyrdquo she tweetedBanerjee also claimed that BJP activists were forcibly occupying polling booths and attacking Trinamool Congress members including party candidates and asserted that she would not get bogged down by such ldquointimidatory tacticsrdquo ldquoSecurity forces have been asked not to resist booth capturingrdquoPolice arrested five persons mdash three members of the TMC and two of the BJP mdash for their alleged involvement in assaulting TMC candidate Sujata Mondal in Arambagh earlier on Tuesday an officer saidSporadic violence in AssamThe voter turnout was 7402 per in Kerala 8233 per cent in Assam 7179 per cent in Tamil Nadu and 7813 per cent in PuducherryThe voting in Assam was largely peaceful despite sporadic incidents of violence and disturbances in some areas officials said There were reports of a clash between two groups of people over some issues at a polling station at Dighaltari Police resorted to lathicharge and firing in the air to control the situation but none was injured an official saidTwo voters die in KeralaMinor incidents of violence were also reported from few places in Kerala At Kattayikonam in Kazhakootam constituency a stronghold of the Marxist party in Thiruvananthapuram district as CPIM and BJP workers clashed Four BJP workers were injured and their car was damagedTwo voters including a woman standing in the queue in Aranmula in Pathnamthitta and Chavittuavary in Kottayam collapsed and diedDevaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran who is the LDF candidate from the constituency told reporters that the aim of the protestors was to disrupt the voting procedure and alleged that police had acted as ldquoBJP agentrdquoClaims of attacks in TNAIADMK MP P Ravindranathrsquos car was allegedly attacked on Tuesday when he went to inspect polling in Bodinayakanur constituency DMKrsquos Thondamuthur constituency nominee in Coimbatore district Karthikeya Sivesenapathy alleged AIADMK and BJP people tried to attack when he was travelling in a carThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever