Ahead of civic polls, Kolkata sees bombs

Kolkata: Ahead of Kolkata civic polls, tension seems to have reached its peak with Kolkata witnessing bombing on Friday night, followed by intense charges and counter-charges flying thick and fast between the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Independent candidate Tanima Chattopadhyay, sister of late minister Subrata Mukherjee. The battle for the possession of Lalbari intensified on Friday midnight, with the elite area of Baliganj Place witnessing bombs being hurled.
On Friday night, Trinamool Congress (TMC) miscreants allegedly hurled two bombs in a row in the elite area of Baliganj Place. It is alleged that three miscreants came on bike. Tanima Chattopadhyay, sister of late Subrata Mukherjee, was announced as a Trinamool candidate. She also started campaigning early; so far so good. But the Trinamool Congress wants to fight the outgoing coordinator Sudarshan Mukherjee. After that, Tanima Chattopadhyay stood as an independent candidate. She was asked by the party to withdraw her nomination papers as an independent candidate. But she did not. Instead, it was decided to expel her from the party. Tanima Chatterjee is now fighting as an independent candidate. It is alleged that the bomber struck shortly after noon. TMC miscreants have been accused in the incident, though the TMC has denied the allegations.
For voting in 144 wards of Kolkata Municipality, a total of 4,959 booths have been set up. Of these, 1,139 booths have been identified as “sensitive” by the State Election Commission. The total number of voters in the 144 wards this time is 40,46,352. The highest number of voters is in ward number 66—7, 95,036. Ward 87 has the lowest number of voters. The number of voters here is 10,033. The average number of voters per ward in Kolkata is 26,114.
The single bench and division bench of the Calcutta High Court have given all the responsibility of law and order to the Kolkata Police. Kolkata Police and State Police are in charge of conducting the poll on Sunday. On the other hand, the police route march s started in the city from Friday afternoon. Rapid Action Force or Calcutta Police RAF conducted route march in the Shyambazar area. Troops marched in New Market, Muchipara, East Jadavpur, Survey Park—all different police station areas. Police raided various hotels near Dharmatala and Park Street.
On the day of the polls, 16 DCs will be on the streets to hear complaints. There will be 200 pickets. There will be sergeants in every picket. There will be six Quick Response Teams (QRTs) in the city. This team will have one officer, three constables. From Saturday, 72 quick response teams will tour the city. There will be heavy radio flying squads in 35 sensitive areas. There will be 23,000 police personnel on the streets.
On Friday, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court headed by Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava said in an interim order that the commission should take responsibility for peaceful elections. If there is any disturbance in the vote, the DG and the mayor will have to answer to the court. There was also talk of a route march to allay fears among voters.