Local people rattled by crude bomb explosions: Bhatpara in Bengal’s North 24 Parganas byelection seat tense after clashes

Bhatpara area of West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas was tense this afternoon following continuous crude bomb explosions in the area. The bombs were being hurled constantly to drive away people. Police had to resort to lathicharge to quell the violence. A number of vehicles were damaged, including some police vehicles.

The Bhatpara Assembly seat is voting for byelection today along with Lok Sabha polls in nine parliamentary seats in the final phase of election. Trinamool Congress lawmaker Arjun Singh had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) last month and is contesting from Barrackpore Lok Sabha seat this time. The Bhatpara Assembly seat has thus become vacant and Singh’s son Pawan is contesting from the BJP against Trinamool Congress candidate Madan Mitra.

The situation in Bhatpara has been tense since last night. There were gunshots, some parked vehicles were set afire and crude bombs were charged in the area last night. Madan Mitra and Arjun Singh made allegations against each other for the violence.

Mitra has been visiting various booths in Bhatpara since this morning. In one booth, he had an altercation with a Central force jawan.

However, around 2 pm, when he had attempted to move into the Kankinara area of the constituency, crude bombs were hurled and a number of explosions took place. Local people ran amok and police had to use lathicharge.

The Lok Sabha seats that went to the polls today are Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat, Jaynagar, Mathurapur, Diamond Harbour, Jadavpur, Kolkata Dakshin and Kolkata Uttar.

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