Key Points
Voters in large numbers in New Town on Kolkata's northern fringes have claimed that they were not allowed to exercise their franchise in the West Bengal panchayat elections, as "goons" stopped them from entering polling booths in the area...
A 75-year-old retired academician claimed that he made two attempts to cast his vote at APJ Abdul Kalam College, the polling centre, but was stopped by a group of people...
The people standing outside the polling centre told us that our votes have been polled," the elderly man said.. "Later, I heard they had done the same thing at other booths in the township, too," he added...
Meanwhile, Samaresh Das, the chairman of New Town Forum, accused the ruling TMC of "using our boycott call to loot votes"...
"It was a total subversion of the democratic process in New Town, and people were obstructed from exercising their franchise under the pretext of vote boycott," he said.. TMC leader of the area Anindyo Sinha Roy claimed that he was stopped by some miscreants from visiting the nearby market...
