Central forces and talk of the flyover collapse were urban development and municipal affairs minister Firhad Hakim’s pet peeves on election day. After casting his vote along with wife Ismat and daughter Priyadarshini at a school in Chetla around noon, the minister spoke to Metro about his government’s bugbears even as his supporters played cat-and-mouse with cops in his constituency, Calcutta Port

Metro: What do you think of the central forces’ role in this election?

Firhad Hakim: The central forces have committed several excesses. 

Metro: Your take on the report submitted by the state government to Calcutta High Court? The report states that compromised construction and a ‘criminal conspiracy’ between suppliers and builders had led to the collapse of the Vivekananda Road flyover on March 31 that killed 26 people and injured scores of people.

Hakim: Ota upor mahal theke dekche (It is being seen by the top rung)

Metro: But you are the urban development minister and chairman of the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) that is the executing agency for the Vivekananda Road flyover?

Hakim: I won’t comment on this or on the construction syndicates now. Please leave me alone.

Around 80 people have gathered about 200 metres away from a booth on Coal Berth Road in the Garden Reach area, under Calcutta Port constituency where Trinamul’s Hakim is taking on the Congress’s Rakesh Singh. The gathering comprises supporters of Trinamul and the Congress. The Trinamul supporters are under multiple umbrellas in party colours and bearing the party logo. Under each umbrella are rows of chairs and more than one table. According to the election rules, a maximum of two activists can sit under an umbrella, which has to be at least 200 metres away from a polling station.

Three police vehicles reach the area. Cops in uniform and plainclothes rush towards the crowd and ask the supporters to disperse. A group of officers chase youths into a nearby lane while others ensure that the makeshift party camps only have a table and two chairs each.

Policemen in plainclothes follow the supporters into the lane and station themselves there, forcing the residents to enter their homes and not loiter in the lane. Within two minutes of the cops arriving, the crowd is gone, as are the bikes and cars that were parked in the area.

Within 15 minutes of the cops leaving the place, the crowd is back on Coal Berth Road. The bikes and cars are also back. Supporters of both parties gather under their respective umbrellas. The Trinamul supporters have a laptop in which they have a copy of the electoral roll saved. They search the names on the roll to direct voters to the right booth in the adjacent polling station. The party activists also tell the voters which EVM button to push to vote for Hakim.