The Trinamool and the BJP accused each other of unleashing violence and intimidating voters as Bengal voted on Wednesday in the second phase of the Assembly election.

The TMC claimed a child sustained injuries during a lathicharge by central forces near booth number 116 in South 24-Parganas’ Satgachhia, and accused the forces of similar actions in Burdwan East’s Ausgram.

Trinamool’s Krishnagar Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra shared a video of the child on her X handle.

“Amit Shah’s army of butchers and jallads don’t stop at hurting even an innocent child during their atrocities on common people on voting day,” Moitra wrote. “See the rage of common citizens.”

The Trinamool’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, Sagarika Ghose, said the police observer deployed in South 24-Parganas should be hauled before the law.

“Unbelievable violence wreaked by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah on Bengal’s citizens. After lathicharging women, central forces have not hit and injured a child. Unacceptable. “Singham” thokshahi cops must be hauled before the law,” she said.

Later in the afternoon Trinamool alleged that a serving Indian Army personnel and his wife were assaulted by BSF personnel over parking near a booth in North 24-Parganas’ Gaighata.

The army officer and his wife were at booth 218 in Barnaberia Ghoshpara when the incident allegedly occurred. The officer was taken to Gaighata police station and later moved to Thakurnagar Hospital for treatment.

Picture: Sourced by the Correspondent

Sharing a video from an undisclosed location on its X (formerly Twitter) handle, the Trinamool accused the central forces of using the “Sitalkuchi model” of terror in the second phase of polling in 142 seats in Bengal.

“Amit Shah’s central forces are now mercilessly assaulting and thrashing women in broad daylight. This is the dreaded Sitalkuchi model of terror being repeated across Bengal, where innocent voters, especially women, are being brutally assaulted, terrorised and intimidated,” the Trinamool said. “The more they attack our mothers and sisters, the fiercer our resistance will become. For every insult, every baton, every tear shed by the women of Bengal, BJP will pay a very heavy price.”

During the fourth phase of polling in the 2021 Assembly polls, on the morning of April 10, 2021, four persons were killed in firing by central forces outside a booth in a village called Jorpatki in Cooch Behar’s Sitalkuchi.

The BJP’s IT cell head Amit Malviya on Wednesday said the party’s symbol on the electronic voting machines at several booths in South 24-Parganas Falta, where the Trinamool strongman Jehangir Khan is the nominee, were taped to prevent voters from pressing them.

“This is what Mamata Banerjee was defending when she spoke for Jehangir Khan, a criminal contesting on a Trinamool ticket from Falta in Diamond Harbour,” Malviya wrote on his X account. “In several polling booths, the option to vote for the BJP has been blocked using a tape, effectively preventing voters from exercising their choice.”

The Election Commission has said repolling will be held in all booths where such incidents were reported.