West Bengal: Security personnel keep vigil at a polling station in Cooch Behar’s Sitalkuchi.
New Delhi:
No politician can enter West Bengal’s Cooch Behar district for the next three days, the Election Commission has said following Saturday’s violence in which four people died.
The silence period for the next phase of voting in the state, the fifth phase which is on April 17, too has been extended to 72 hours.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced that she will, on Sunday, visit the area where the clashes broke out, while the Trinamool Congress had planned to organise black-badge protests across the state to mark the incident.
Clashes took place outside a polling station in Cooch Behar after a local mob attacked security forces over a misunderstanding, the Election Commission said earlier on Saturday, adding that the Central Industrial Security Force, or CISF, personnel had to open fire to “save their lives and government property like EVMs”.
The election panel said the misunderstanding began when the central security forces were trying to help a sick boy near the polling booth in Sitalkuchi early Saturday morning, when some locals thought the boy was beaten up by personnel, and assembled nearly 300-350 villagers.
The incident trigged a war of words between Ms Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and rival BJP.
