Third phase of poll in Bengal passed off peacefully

Kolkata, Apr 27 (UNI) Even as more than 72 per cent turnout was recorded in the third phase of elections for 76 seats in West Bengal Assembly today, there was no report of any major incident of violence or electoral malpractices from anywhere in Kolkata and its two adjoining districts.

Claiming that barring an isolated incident of bursting of firecrackers and breaking of an electronic voting machine by an irate voter in South Kolkata's Jadavpur and Tollygunge constituencies respectively, polling was held in absolutely peaceful atmosphere, Inspector General of Police Law and Order Raj Kanojia said long queues of voters were seen in front of most of the pooling booths in all the 76 constituencies.

Referring to the malfunctioning of a number of EVMs since morning causing delayed or slow polling in several booths, Mr Kanojia said in all cases prompt action was taken to replace the defective EVMs at the earliest.

When his attention was drawn towards the alleged misbehaviour of some para-military personnel deployed from outside the state to oversee the elections in West Bengal, Mr Kanojia said he was not aware of any such incident. ''There might be one or two such isolated incidents from among more than 50,000 such personnel, he said adding immediate actions were taken against the erring security personnel when reported.'' He said following the end of the third phase of polling today, majority of these security forces would be despatched to Burdwan, Murshidabad and Birbhum districts for the fourth phase of polling on May three.

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