A CRPF jawan on NH34, 5km from Tenga Tengi village in North 24-Parganas, on Friday. Picture by Biswarup Dutta

Amdanga, July 19: Bomb-and-bullet battles outside polling centres claimed two lives today, underlining why the state election commission has been insisting on central forces who were again largely kept away from the booths by two district administrations.

State police, left in charge of poll security in most parts of North and South 24-Parganas where the killings happened, stayed mute spectators to the violence, got beaten up, and in at least one instance fled the scene.

After a third death in a CPM-Congress clash at a tea stall, the day’s toll rose to four late evening when a CISF jawan fired on a restive crowd at a booth in Joynagar, one of the pockets in South 24-Parganas where central forces were deployed.

Central forces on poll duty function under the state police authorities. It wasn’t clear till late tonight who had ordered the firing in Joynagar.

The Telegraph’s reporters criss-crossing North 24-Parganas and the violence-prone Bhangar and Baruipur areas of South 24-Parganas saw only two booths where central force personnel stood outside the premises, checking voters’ identities.

Howrah, the third district that voted in the third phase of the panchayat polls, however, posted central forces at many polling centres.

The day’s first death took place at Tenga Tengi village in Amdanga, North 24-Parganas. Some 50 alleged Trinamul gunmen thrashed the two armed state constables and the polling officials at the centre, snatched three ballot boxes and threw them into a pond.

As full-scale violence broke out when the CPM retaliated in what was its stronghold, the Amdanga OC, rushing in with state and central police reinforcements, retreated after a blast shattered his vehicle’s windshields and a bullet whizzed past his head.

“A bullet passed close to my ears,” OC Shamsher Ali said. “I could easily have been shot in the head.”

Bengal police sources said Ali feared that the CRPF jawans in his team might open fire without the state police’s nod, so he turned back without trying to contain the hour-long violence that killed CPM supporter Madarbux Mullik, 65.

“We were sure the police headquarters would not give us permission to fire,” the source said.

The second death took place in Lakshmikantapur, South 24-Parganas, where Trinamul supporter Sanat Ghosh, 40, who had come to vote, was hit by a stray bullet as Trinamul and CPM activists clashed in front of the booth.

In the evening, state poll panel officials regretted that the administrations of North and South 24-Parganas had deployed the central forces on “street patrol” in large swathes instead of at the polling centres.

“Is this why we went all the way to the Supreme Court to ensure security for the rural polls?” a commission source said.

In the earlier two phases, the central forces had been kept virtually on standby following verbal instructions from Writers’. But the poll panel had declared today’s phase the “toughest” and earmarked several violence-prone belts for heavy central force deployment.

At Joynagar, which wasn’t so earmarked, CISF personnel had been stationed at a booth in Danra Bapulir Chowk Primary School where the queues apparently became restive as polling crawled past 8pm.

A district police officer said a quarrel broke out between the voters and security personnel, during which a group of people started throwing stones at the policemen and broke a police vehicle’s windshield.

“Seeing the situation spinning out of control, a CISF jawan fired at the mob, killing one person.”

It wasn’t immediately known how many rounds were fired. The man who died was an SUCI worker, Amal Haldar, 32. Joynagar boasts the state’s lone SUCI member of the Assembly, Tarun Naskar.

Naskar said the booth had 1,032 voters but only 525 had been able to vote till 8pm. “People began to protest and the CISF jawans resorted to a lathicharge. When that failed to contain the crowd, a CISF jawan fired a shot that hit Haldar in the head.”

A district official on election duty admitted that polling had been slow in South 24-Parganas.

“That’s because each voter has to vote on three ballot papers, one for each tier of the panchayat. At 10.30pm, polling was still on in nearly 2,500 booths,” the official said. In the earlier two phases, voting had continued till 4am at some places.

Earlier, at 6.30pm, Congress worker Mir Anwar Hossein died after being hit in the head with a bamboo stick at Berachanpa in Deganga, North 24-Parganas. The 40-year-old had been chatting with fellow party workers at a tea stall when a quarrel broke out with some CPM supporters.

CPM state secretary Biman Bose alleged a “loot” of ballots in “hundreds” --- or perhaps “thousands” --- of booths and accused the poll panel of failing to play “a proactive role” to ensure fair elections.

“Their (the commission’s) role hasn’t been satisfactory,” Bose said. “Where were the central forces today? They were hardly visible. The commission couldn’t care less.”

“What happens inside the booths is the commission’s responsibility; outside, it is the state’s,” state election commission secretary Tapas Roy told reporters, indicating that the blame for failing to prevent violence lay with the state government.

Late in the evening, a state police team accompanied by the central forces reached Tenga Tengi and patrolled the roads, arresting six persons in raids.

A fifth violent death too occurred today. Somnath Mukherjee, 16, believed to be mentally challenged, had apparently behaved “rudely” with Trinamul worker Swapan Sardar at Ghutiarisharif in Canning, South 24-Parganas. The teen died after being beaten up.