'Police acting like BJP agent': Bengal bye-poll rigged, say Muslim voters turned away from booths

An Assembly bye-poll in West Bengal on Tuesday saw the administration making widespread attempts at rigging it in favour of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Opposition workers alleged.

In Rejinagar, where the bye-election was held, Scroll found that the police were turning away Muslim voters from some polling stations, intimidating Opposition workers and stifling independent journalists.

When asked about this, Harshal Pancholi, an Indian Administrative Service officer serving as the Election Commission’s general observer in Rejinagar, asserted that the bye-poll was “free and fair”. He said that after political parties alleged that some booths had been captured, he had examined “video evidence” and was satisfied with the manner in which voting was conducted.

In response to Scroll’s questions about specific polling stations from where voters were turned away, Pancholi promised to respond later. “I will go into the details and cross-check what you have shared,” he said. “We are here to ensure that elections are without any fear.”

Voters turned away

At first glance, everything seemed to be proceeding normally at the polling station set up in the Teghari Primary School of Nazirpur village on Tuesday morning. Several Muslim women had queued up to cast their votes and the queue was moving fast when we visited it at around 9 am.

However, it took...

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