Stopped from voting in rural polls, allege voters in Kolkata's New Town

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

New Town on Kolkata's northern fringes have claimed that they were not allowed to exercise their franchise in the West Bengal panchayat elections, as «goons» stopped them from entering polling booths in the area. A total of 2.06 lakh candidates are in the fray for elections to 73,887 seats in the three-tier panchayat system in the state, which were held on Saturday. About 5.67 crore people living in the state's rural areas were eligible to vote. A 75-year-old retired academician claimed that he made two attempts to cast his vote at APJ Abdul Kalam College, the polling centre, but was stopped by a group of people. «First, they stopped me at 8 am. Many people blocked roads leading to the polling centre with guard rails. Then again around 12 noon, I tried to go to the booth along with a neighbour, but we had to return. The people standing outside the polling centre told us that our votes have been polled,» the elderly man said. «Later, I heard they had done the same thing at other booths in the township, too,» he added.

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Some residents of the smart city, under the banner of New Town Forum, had been protesting for long against the inclusion of the township in panchayat area. The forum had also decided to boycott the polls. Another section, however, said they were unhappy as New Town was a part of panchayat, but wanted to cast votes to be a part of the democratic process. Various political parties, including the ruling Trinamool Congress, had urged people of the area to vote in the panchayat polls. Samir Gupta, the secretary of New Town Citizen's Welfare Fraternity, said, «We witnessed the killing of democracy. The APJ Abdul Kalam