Md. Salim's Day of Action: CPM Candidate Asserts Presence in Murshidabad

On his day of reckoning, CPM state secretary and candidate for Murshidabad, Md. Salim, was very active in the constituency, traveling far and refusing to back down from conflicts in order to make sure he was noticed and heard during the voting hours.

Salim visited five of the seven Assembly segments in the Murshidabad Lok Sabha constituency over a total of 270 km (back and forth), and at the end of the day, he declared his confidence in winning.

The 66-year-old Salim left the Behrampore CPM headquarters at 8am for Raninagar, which is 25km distant. Salim had gone above and above to make sure that seat sharing with the Congress worked out in Bengal.

He learned that the CPM agent, Mustakim Sheikh, had been beaten up and had to escape from a booth in the village of Lochonpur. Salim made sure he was hospitalized after discovering him hidden in a neighboring banana orchard.

Next, the CPM candidate went to the booth and apprehended a supposed Trinamool Congress employee who was impersonating a CPM agent. Salim made certain that the police picked up the supposed imposter amidst tense conversations at the booth.

Salim's next stop was the about 10-kilometer-distance Mohanpur Primary School, where Trinamool workers were yelling for him to leave. They did not want him to enter the booth, ostensibly not knowing that he was a candidate. Salim is accused of pushing Masadul Sheikh, a Trinamool employee, into a drain during a fight.

He got into a fight with Hitler Sarkar, the head of the Trinamool booth unit, at Gopinathpur, which is 4 miles away.

Salimda's early polling hours guaranteed media coverage and made the Election Commission's apparatus take notice. An insider on Alimuddin Street stated, "He set out with a mission and succeeded in achieving it.

According to CPM district secretary Jamir Mollah, distinct Congress squads were also afoot, closely monitoring the situation and stepping in when needed to stop abuses by the ruling regime.

After that, Salim attempted to bat with a few children who were playing cricket on a field 20 kilometers away in Domkal. He also traveled to the 25-kilometer Jalangi.

Salim and his group had lunch at Nadia's Karimpur, which is 25 miles away. He traveled 30 km to Hariharpara late in the afternoon and returned around 5:30 p.m.

He convened with reporters for a press conference at 630 p.m.

As far as Murshidabad's election history goes, this is most likely the first bloodless one without any reports of gun violence or bomb explosions. We had encouraged the Indian Election Commission to carry out its duties on several occasions. We are grateful to the commission for our success," he remarked.

On June 4, the counting will occur. We would prioritize keeping the Congress and the strong room—where the EVMs would be kept—monitored around-the-clock in the interim, he continued.

Salim reported that Tuesday's polling was very quiet and that some individuals exercised their right to vote for the first time in seven to twelve years, noting that some of them were as young as 25 or 30.

"I am confident, especially considering the healthy turnout of over 80%," he remarked.

Salim grinned when asked if his atypically combative and hostile demeanor on election day was a calculated move.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Press Time staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.