Mamata visits polling booths in Bhabanipur, alleges central forces acting at BJP’s behest
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday visited various booths in her Bhabanipur Assembly constituency where polling is underway and alleged that central forces and election observers were acting at the behest of the BJP.
The Bhabanipur Assembly segment is Ms. Banerjee’s political bastion, where she faces Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari in a prestige battle seen as a symbolic rematch of Nandigram, where he had defeated her in 2021.
The TMC supremo, who usually steps out of her Kalighat residence in the afternoon on polling day to cast her vote at Mitra Institution School, went out before 8 a.m. and visited several polling stations in the constituency, including those in the Chetla area of south Kolkata.
She later sat outside a polling station at Chakraberia in Bhabanipur and spoke to reporters, alleging irregularities and accusing the BJP of trying to influence the polling process through central forces and observers.
“Several observers have come from outside and are acting as per the BJP’s directions. People are supposed to cast their votes, can voting take place like this?” Ms. Banerjee said.
She also alleged that all TMC party flags had been removed beforehand and claimed that outsiders were interfering with the polling process.
“They are not allowing the councillor of ward number 70 to step out. They are picking up all our boys. Abhishek and I stayed awake the entire night,” she said.
– PTI
