April 18,2019
It was learned that when some of the Hindus went to cast their vote in the morning, they were informed by the poll officials that their votes had already been cast.
Kolkata: In a sensational newsbreak from Raiganj in West Bengal, Times Now has learned that voters in the constituency are being discriminated against on religious lines as voting progressed in the second phase of Lok Sabha Elections on Thursday.
Hindu voters at a village in the constituency have alleged that while some were stopped from proceeding towards the polling booth, others claimed that bogus votes in their names had already been cast when they reached the polling station in the morning.
As per details available with Times Now and eyewitness accounts, voters belonging to the Hindu religion were stopped from casting their votes by some Muslim men and their voter identity cards were also taken away
Times Now correspondent Tamal Saha spoke to some of the Hindu voters who were stopped from casting their votes. The voters, while showing their voter slips and ink-less fingers, alleged that they were stopped from voting because they would have voted for the BJP.
The village in question is Muslim dominated where around 600 Hindus also reside. It was learned that when some of the Hindus went to cast their vote in the morning, they were informed by the poll officials that their votes had already been cast.
The voters later told Times Now that they had not been allowed to cast their votes because of the profiling. It was reported that the Muslim-dominated village has a leaning towards one particular political party, in this case, the Trinamool Congress as alleged by the voters.
One of the village residents said: “I was stopped from going to the polling booth. Four to five Muslim men tried to beat me and damage my bicycle. They said you are from the BJP and asked me to run away.”
The development came as the West Bengal BJP approached the State Election Commission in Kolkata to lodge a complaint against the Trinamool Congress regarding violence witnessed across different constituencies in the state in phase two of the Lok Sabha Elections.
Earlier, BJP’s Raiganj candidate Debasree Chaudhuri had alleged that TMC workers were indulging in booth capturing.
“TMC workers were trying to capture booth. They were campaigning among Muslims there. This isn’t election campaign,” Debasree alleged, claiming that the ruling party workers tried to capture booth at Raiganj Coronation High School.
Also on Thursday, the convoy of CPI(M) Raiganj candidate Mohammed Salim was attacked. The Left leader’s convoy was attacked by unidentified men in Islampur. It was reported that bullets were allegedly fired at his convoy, and bricks and stones were also hurled. The Left MP escaped the attack without injuries.
Source : TimesNow
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