BJP’s Locket Chatterjee and TMC’s Asima Patra Clash Amid Tensions in Hooghly During Polls

Locket Chatterjee, the BJP candidate, and Asima Patra, the Trinamool Congress MLA, sparred on Monday when a mob of Trinamool workers gheraoed the BJP politician, accusing her of neglecting the area while serving as the Hooghly MP.

It is said that the two female leaders of opposing factions carried on their verbal sparring for almost thirty minutes on Monday afternoon in Muidipur village in Hooghly's Dhaniakhali.

The TMC MLA called Asima a "dacoit" in response to Locket calling her a "thief" while they were both standing close to a polling place.

Hooghly was one of the seven Bengali constituencies that cast ballots on Monday in the general election's fifth phase. Actress Rachana Banerjee is the opponent of Locket this time around in Trinamool. In Tollywood, Rachana and Locket were peers.

According to a Dhaniakhali local, "the situation could have turned violent if the police had not arrived in time and intervened."

At the police's request, Locket fled the area.

As per a source, Locket unexpectedly showed up at Asima's residence in Muidipur hamlet in Dhaniakhali, a well-known Trinamool bastion, while touring other booths inside her constituency.

Locket went into the booth and began to verify the identification of a few young people. Then she declared that Asima had rigged.

Locket was swarmed by over fifty Trinamool employees, most of whom were women, shouting "go-back" as soon as she emerged from the booth.

Why haven't you been here since winning the 2019 election? You have now arrived to tamper with the electoral process. You're not welcome here," a woman remarked. In a chorus, many more people joined her in labeling Locket a thief.

As soon as Asima arrived at the location, according to a source, things became heated and she accused Locket of upsetting the voters and her party colleagues. Locket was pursued by Asima, who motioned for her to depart.

Asima questioned, "Why did she (Locket) enter the Trinamool camp office, 200 metres away from the polling booth?" before yelling anti-revolutionary slogans.

Locket let out a startled cry, "thief, thief! It raised the tension to "Asima is a thief." "She is a dacoit if I am a thief," the MLA declared.

Locket asserted that they yelled "go back" slogans because Asima stopped them from manipulating the election process and named her as the source of all the violence and wrongdoing in Dhaniakhali.

"This is Asima Patra's booth; rigging was present here the previous year. When I got there, the rigging was only halfway done. Here, the police did not operate effectively. Locket informed reporters, "They (Trinamool) gave go-back slogans because my presence stopped them from conducting malpractice."

Locket was charged by Asima of purposely interfering with the polling process.

"She came and looted this EVM in 2019." Asima stated, "She had a similar plan this time as well, but we stopped her."

Locket had earlier in the day dragged a Trinamool poll worker from a Dasghara, Dhaniakhali, booth on charges of harassing the electorate.

According to a top BJP official, Locket planned to concentrate on Dhaniakhali, a Trinamool bastion in the Hooghly Lok Sabha constituency, on election day.

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