TMC candidate Partha Pratim Ray leads in Bengal’s Sitalkuchi seat where 4 people died in CISF firing
While the incident drew sharp criticism from the ruling TMC, the Election Commission said that that the security forces (CISF) had to open fire to save the lives of the people and their own.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Partha Pratim Ray is leading from Sitalkuchi in Cooch Behar as the counting for the West Bengal assembly election is underway on Sunday, early trends showed. The assembly constituency hogged the limelight after four people lost their lives on April 10 during the fourth phase of polling in a shooting incident by the central forces. One more person was killed in another firing incident on the same day in Sitalkuchi.
After the incident, the Election Commission of India banned the entry of political leaders "within the geographical boundaries of the district" for 72 hours. It also ordered adjourning of voting in polling station 126 of Sitalkurchi assembly constituency. A repoll took place on April 29 during the last phase of the West Bengal elections.
While the incident drew sharp criticism from the ruling TMC, the Election Commission said that that the security forces (CISF) had to open fire to save the lives of the people and their own. “The joint report of the two special observers has been received at 5.12pm wherein they inter alia stated that recourse to open fire by the CISF personnel became absolutely necessary in order to save the lives of the voters lined up at the polling booth, those of other polling personnel and their own lives as the mob had attempted snatching their weapons also,” the ECI said in a statement on April 11.
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Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party slammed TMC chief Mamata Banerjee and accused her of pre-planning the attack.
In the aftermath, TMC also demanded the resignation of Union home minister and BJP leader Amit Shah over the incident. Shah responded by saying he will step down when the voters ask him to resign. “Didi is repeatedly saying Amit Shah must resign. Didi when people will ask me to resign then I will. But you must prepare as you will have to resign on May 2,” said Shah.
Sitalkuchi is one of the key constituencies of West Bengal and after the April 10 firing incident, it is being closely watched by political experts. It went to the polls on April 10. In 2016's elections, Trinamool Congress's Hiten Barman won the election by upstaging Communist Party of India (Marxist)'s Namadipti Adhikary by a margin of 15,483 votes.
Several post-poll surveys have given an edge to the ruling TMC. In West Bengal, all exit polls predicted that the BJP would make major inroads and a few also said that the party would emerge victorious.
