Malda Villagers Protest Polls, Allege Outsiders Cast Votes

Malda, India - A group of villagers in Malda who had boycotted Tuesday’s polls over poor development and bad roads, alleged that the local block administration brought in a couple of “outsiders” and made them cast their votes at the booth late on Tuesday evening.

Residents of Radhakantapur, a village under Mangalpura panchayat in Habibpur block under Malda Uttar constituency, had announced their decision to boycott the elections since Tuesday morning. Led by women, the villagers launched a daylong demonstration, protesting that their demand for the construction of a road and a bridge had remained unmet for years.

The situation escalated when irate residents held the polling team hostage and later attacked the police over the votes cast, thwarting their poll boycott plan. Two police officers were injured in stone-pelting by villagers. The police retaliated with batons and teargas to disperse the crowd and eventually rescued the polling team and officials of the block administration from the spot. Raids were conducted in the village to apprehend those involved in the violence.

Jyotsna Mondal, a villager, said, “We continued the demonstration and no one voted. Around 3.30pm, some officials from the block office reached the booth with two women who were outsiders. They cast their votes. As we protested, the BDO assured us that no vote had been polled in the booth and they would show us the EVM to prove their point.”

However, after polling time (6pm), as the polling team was wrapping up and sealing the EVM, villagers approached them. “We asked them to show the EVM to confirm no vote was cast in the booth. They denied showing us the EVM,” Mondal added.

Around 300 angry villagers assembled at the booth and detained the polling team. The team members passed the information to the block, prompting the BDO and other officers to hurry to the spot. They tried to convince the villagers to set the polling team free, but the latter detained them as well.

As a police team reached the spot to rescue the polling team and other officials stuck in the booth, some villagers resorted to brick-batting. An inspector of police and a woman assistant sub-inspector were injured as they were hit by bricks and stones.

The police resorted to lathi-charge and burst teargas shells to disperse the mob. While the injured police personnel were taken to hospital, others, including the polling team, were rescued from the village.

Later at night, police started conducting raids in the village to nab the attackers. However, most men of Radhakantapur had left the village to evade arrest, said sources.

The police and the administration have registered separate cases in connection with the incident. Senior administrative officials of the district, when contacted, said three votes were polled in the booth. “Those are EDC (election duty certificate) votes. People on poll duty can get EDC and vote in any booth. Three such voters have voted in the booth,” said an official.

He added: “Villagers have no legal authority to check an EVM. They should have understood it instead of getting angry.”