- July 8, 2023: Outsiders had gathered around the polling booth. Many of them were armed with bamboo shafts and sticks. All roads leading to the booth were blocked with guardrails and benches. Residents approaching the booth were stopped and asked to turn around by men and women. No policemen were in sight. Many were told to “not cast their votes as a vote boycott” was in place.
- June 1, 2024: No outsiders, not even local party workers, were spotted near the booth. No barricade was set up on any of the roads. A vehicle with armed CRPF personnel circled the booth every five minutes. There were long queues of residents on the booth premises. No one else other than voters and polling personnel were allowed inside.
Polling stations across New Town on Saturday painted a picture in contrast compared with the day of the panchayat polls last year.
On July 8, 2023, residents were pushed, shoved and beaten up by outsiders when they stepped out to vote.
The residents who came under attack near the polling station at Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Government College that day were spotted on Saturday morning enjoying an adda session in front of an apartment block, a stone’s throw from the college in New Town’s Action Area I.
Tarunjyoti Goswami, a resident of New Town’s AB Block, said he stepped out of his home around 10.30am to cast his vote.
“I left the polling booth at 11.20am. The entire polling process was smooth. On the day of the panchayat polls, I was shoved by outsiders, who said residents of New Town had boycotted the polls,” said Goswami.
Last year, several parts of New Town went to the polls on July 8 as the areas had been included within the Jyangra-Hatiara II gram panchayat. Many residents had protested the inclusion.
New Town, part of the Barasat Lok Sabha constituency, is a planned township of parks, boulevards, smart residential high-rises and mixed-use buildings. The township is surrounded by several villages and semi-urban pockets.
Goswami told The Telegraph that they had heard of no instances of violence in New Town on Saturday.
AE Block resident Dipak Biswas was heard telling the group how his car had been stopped by a group of men who banged on its windows and windshield and threatened to beat him up if he did not turn around.
On Saturday, Biswas drove to the polling station and said the polling process was “hassle-free this time”.
“There was not a single outsider or goon in sight. Central forces personnel asked for my voter identity card at the gate. I handed them my Aadhaar card as I had misplaced my voter identity
card. They directed me to the booth. This time we felt safe during the elections,” Biswas said.
At the New Town fairground, where a few polling booths were set up, a group of residents narrated similar stories.
Abhijit Ghosh, who had come to the polling station with son Koustav and wife Soma, said he voted for a stable government that could create jobs and set up manufacturing units in the state.
“I was surprised when I set out to vote. There were no outsiders. No barricade was seen. Although I have a series of meetings lined up today, I decided to vote because we
need a government that can create jobs and boost the country’s GDP by setting up more manufacturing units,” Ghosh said.
The voting process during the panchayat elections was a farce, he said, because an attempt by a section of residents to boycott polls was misused by outsiders and residents were beaten up.
Gaurav Sharma, the commissioner of Bidhannagar police, said no major incident had taken place on Saturday. “No one complained that he or she could not vote,” Sharma said.