Calcutta, April 18: An on-duty policeman getting shot at, crude bombs exploding, hundreds of complaints of poll malpractice and election "management" by the ruling party - today's civic polls in Calcutta harked back to a time before the relative calm of recent years.

With over 80 alleged incidents of violence or intimidation by Trinamul reported from various parts of the city, the fears expressed in the run-up to the 19th Calcutta Municipal Corporation polls, conducted with just three companies of central forces, have come true.

The booths, manned mostly by Calcutta police personnel and polling officials who allegedly looked the other way, witnessed a resurgence of the charges of "scientific rigging", a concept the Left Front was alleged to have perfected in its heyday.

The administration, which considers only voter turnout and casualty to assess peacefulness, reacted predictably, with state election commissioner S.R. Upadhaya and Calcutta police commissioner Surajit Kar Purkayastha lauding the "peaceful" polls.

The turnout till 6pm was 62.42 per cent, marginally higher than the 61.59 per cent in 2010. The turnout in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in Calcutta was around 67 per cent.

According to Upadhaya, 415 complaints of booth-jamming, booth capture, forced eviction of polling agents and intimidation of voters were received from 70-odd booths. Around 65 complaints survived the preliminary inquiries, he said, adding that the polls were "more or less" peaceful.

Upadhaya said the possible need for re-polling in "some" booths would be assessed over the next day or two on the basis of the complaints, which would be matched with the reports from observers.

"Such a large volume of complaints is far from ideal. To answer your questions, the polls were peaceful, more or less. I cannot comment right away whether they were free and fair," he said at the end of official voting hours.

"There have been many complaints of electoral malpractice, which we are in the process of examining. Had these elections been free and fair, there would not have been so many complaints," he added.

Kar Purkayastha said the elections were peaceful barring a "few isolated cases" of violence. The police arrested 58 people in connection with the violence, he said, declining comment on their political allegiance.

The commissioner's comments, however, came shortly before sub-inspector Jagannath Mondal of Girish Park police station was shot at.

The chief minister claimed she hadn't seen a more peaceful city on election day.

"I haven't seen such a peaceful city. The people were in a festive mood. One or two untoward incidents may have taken place. That is unfortunate. During elections, such things happen," Mamata Banerjee said after visiting Mondal at an Ekbalpore hospital.

"Behind many incidents, the Opposition's provocation was there. That does not mean polling was not peaceful. Those who are saying so are distorting the truth," she added.

The Opposition, too, was predictable, with the BJP leading the pack in lodging complaints and demanding a cancellation of the polls and fresh elections under the watch of the central forces.

State BJP president Rahul Sinha said democracy had been "gang-raped in broad daylight" by the election commission, the police and the ruling establishment.

CPM state secretariat member Rabin Deb said electoral malpractices had taken place in at least 500 of the 4,704 booths.

The violence, intimidation and other kinds of malpractice that this newspaper witnessed in booths at Cossipore, Ahiritola, Kankurgachhi, Beliaghata, Bowbazar, Lansdowne, Garden Reach, Tollygunge, Jadavpur and Netajinagar suggested a few things.

First, according to several Alimuddin Street sources, Trinamul has "mastered" the art of "managing" elections, a skill the Left Front had perfected under the leadership of former party secretary Anil Biswas.

As Deb pointed out, voting had been "wrapped up" by 9.30am at most booths. "We just couldn't keep up with the pace," he said.

Deb's theory was bolstered by the BJP candidate from ward 57, Sudhir Pandey, who was at the commission office by 10.30am to allege rigging. He said polling had almost been completed in his ward by 9.30am.

Second, the Opposition hasn't a clue how to counter the malpractices. It just kept crying foul.

"From the late 1980s, the Congress and later Trinamul began holding their ground in some pockets although we used to win the elections hands down. The most striking feature of today's elections was the absence of Opposition resistance," a CPM leader said.

Today, the only resistance from the CPM was visible in southern pockets such as Jadavpur, Patuli and New Garia, where the party's South 24-Parganas unit was in charge. Elsewhere, the CPM seemed to have given the ruling party a walkover.

The BJP, clearly in need of organisational improvement, was barely visible outside television news channels before 9am and after 11am.