Amid violence municipal election in WB ends, 17 media personnel attacked

The Asansol Municipal Corporation was formed by merging Raniganj, Jamuria and Kulti municipalities while the Bidhannagar corporation was constituted by merging Bidhannagar and Rajarhat-Gopalpur municipalities.

While reports of violence poured in from everywhere, TV footage showed people brandishing swords openly in Asansol.

In ward number 41 of Bidhannagar, police, however, was seen charging some outsiders with lathis. But local media reports said police played a largely inactive role.

Two Congress supporters were killed in a bomb attack. The party blamed the murder on the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) during a re-poll in Patharbati Gram Panchayat under Hariharpara Police Station in Murshidabad district and three voters- Raja Mullick, Rahul Hena and Shuklal Karmakar- were injured by bullets and bombs when miscreants allegedly fired  bullets and threw bombs indiscriminately in Asansol area in Burdwan district of West Bengal, during the election in Asansol Municipal Corporation.

Five round bullets were allegedly fired and few motorcycles were burnt during a clash between Congress and TMC at Kaikhali area on VIP Road in Kolkata on Saturday afternoon.
 
However, civic polls in Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad was also conducted on Saturday which was comparatively peaceful.

Meanwhile, seventeen journalists, photojournalists and cameramen of seven Kolkata-based media houses were attacked by alleged Trinamool Congress goons in city's satellite town Salt Lake and at Bali area in Howrah district of West Bengal during the coverage of municipal polls on Saturday, marred by widespread violence and rigging.

The injured mediapersons are ABP Ananda's Aritrik Bhattacharya, Prakash Sinha, Mayukh Thakur Chakraborty, Parthasarathi Chakraborty and Ajay Das; 24 Ghanta's Vikram Das, Debarati Ghosh and Mintu Basak; Anandabazar Patrika's Souvik Dey; The Telegraph's Sanjay Chatterjee; Kolkata TV's Sharmin Begum and Tanmoy Dutta Biswas; News Time's Arko Dey and Dipankar Jana and ETV News Bangla's Atirath Ghosh, Tuhin Das Chandra and Suraj Prasad Gupta, the channels said.

According to reports, few of them are being treated in serious condition in private hospitals.

Condemning off the brutal attack, the general secretary of the Kolkata Press Club, Anindya Sengupta told IBNS: "We are condemning of this attack. I demand a strict action by the police authorities. Police should arrest the hooligans immediately who conducted the attack and punish them. Regarding this matter, we will send letter to the home secretary and the higher authorities, if needed."

All opposition parties including the Left Front, Congress, BJP and ruling TMC also condemned off this attack on the media.

The Left Front chairman Biman Bose said, "Attacking the media was very bad incident, we are condemning of this. Hope the injured journalists will get well very soon. Election commission failed completely to conduct a free and fare election. Election commission should cancel this election and re-conduct it. We will observe protest-day on Monday."

Demanding the re-arrangement of the civic polls here in the presence of central paramilitary force and under the observation of central government's election commission, BJP, LF and Congress delegations met West Bengal election commissioner Sushanta Ranjan Upadhyaya on Saturday evening.

Demanding the same, a team of BJP led by its state president Rahul Sinha and a LF's team led by CPI-M leader Rabin Deb have started a sit-in-demonstration at WB election commission's office.

Protesting against the violence during the civic polls, the CPI-M has called for a 12-hour-long strike in Salt Lake-Rajarhat area on Monday.

However, denying all allegations against them, the secretary general of TMC, Partha Chatterjee said in a press conference here, "We are condemning off the attacks on journalists. Chief minister is inquiring into those incidents. After identifying the accused, administration will take immediate action against them."

"The Opposition has no public support. Their actions in recent past are anti-democracy. Those who have been rejected by the people are trying to become heroes in front of the camera. People will give a fitting reply. Oppositions conducted the violence, not we. Every party has outsiders, it's the duty and responsibility of election commission to control the outsiders and police's movement," he further added.

However, 70%, 71%, 69.3% and 78% polls were recorded in Bidhannagar, Asansol, Howrah and Siliguri respectively.

The results will be declared on Oct 7.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)