Bengal rural polls: ISF, police clash in Bhangore, top cop among several injured

Kolkata: Several policemen and supporters of the Indian Secular Front (ISF) were injured in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district as a clash broke out outside a centre where counting of votes for rural polls was going on, police said on Wednesday.

The incident happened late Tuesday night when members of the ISF allegedly hurled bombs outside the counting centre at Bhangore and police restored to baton charge, a senior officer said. Police personnel fired a few rounds of rubber bullets and lobbed tear gas shells to disperse the mob, he said.

”A senior IPS officer, his bodyguard and several other policemen as well as a few alleged members of the ISF were injured in the clash,” he told PTI.

A few people have been detained from the spot for their alleged involvement in the incident, the officer said.

“Around midnight, some people started a commotion outside the counting centre at Bhangore. They hurled bombs, aiming at our colleagues. In retaliation and to maintain law and order, our officers had baton charged. The police personnel had to fire a few rounds of tear gas and rubber bullets after the situation started deteriorating,” he said.

The policemen as well as the alleged members of the ISF are being treated at a hospital, the officer added.

A huge team of police personnel has been deployed at Bhangore, particularly outside the counting centre.

Bhangore has been on the boil since June 8 when the rural polls were announced by the state election commission.

Governor Dr CV Ananda Bose had visited violence-hit Bhangore twice and spoken to the family members of a person who was killed in a poll-related clash there and also to the injured people.

Incidentally, Bose had gone to Bhangore on Tuesday, soon after returning from New Delhi, primarily to understand the situation there in the context of poll counting.

The ruling Trinamool Congress on Wednesday looked poised to sweep to a massive victory in violence-scarred rural polls in Bengal as the overnight count of ballots gave it an unassailable lead in results declared till now by the state election commission.

The violence, which rocked the panchayat polls held on July 8, has claimed at least 15 lives with 11 of them from the ruling TMC. Since the elections were announced last month, the number of people who died in poll-related incidents was at 33.