Bengal bypolls: Cong candidate stages sit-in, seeks repolling at Rejinagar

Kolkata: Mohammad Abdullahil Kafi, the Congress candidate for bypolls in Rejinagar Assembly Constituency in Murshidabad district of West Bengal, accompanied by his associates, on Tuesday began a sit-in demonstration in front of the Rejinagar Police Station demanding total repolling in the constituency.

Kafi alleged that BJP supporters were preventing voters from exercising their franchise at several booths, particularly targeting minority community voters. He also accused the police and central security forces of failing to intervene.

“The polling at Rejinagar has become a farcical exercise. So, our demand is its immediate cancellation and a total repolling in Rejinagar,” Kafi told media persons.

However, the BJP’s state president in West Bengal and the party’s Rajya Sabha member Samik Bhattacharya said the Congress candidate is raising such baseless allegations fearing his imminent landslide defeat.

“By-elections are underway in Rejinagar and Nandigram in East Midnapore district. BJP candidates will win from both the constituencies. Many people still cannot believe that BJP can win in minority-dominated areas. We are going to win by five times the margin of victory we won last time in Nandigram. Rejinagar is a minority-dominated area. We will win there too,” Bhattacharya said.

Meanwhile, after the first four hours of polling till 11 a.m., the average polling percentage at Nandigram and Rejinagar has been recorded at 41.33. While the percentage in Rejinagar till then is 38.71, the same had been higher at 43.95 in the case of Nandigram.

Reports of sporadic tension have come from both the constituencies in the last two hours as well.

The Congress candidate in Nandigram, Milan Pradhan, alleged that the BJP supporters started terrorising the voters in the constituency for the last two days and on Tuesday the ruling party activists crossed all limits.

“Everyone has the right to participate in elections. But there is no situation in Nandigram to exercise that democratic right. The pockets in Nandigram, which are known as anti-BJP pockets, are being specially targeted by the ruling party activists. We are updating the Election Commission of India of such instances,” Pradhan said.

A source in the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) office said the majority of the complaints received by them since Tuesday morning had been from Congress.

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