Mamata Banerjee cast her vote at Bhowanipore's Mitra Institution late in the evening on Monday on the penultimate day of voting in 36 Assembly seats that includes three incumbent ministers from South Calcutta, the backyard of the Bengal chief minister.
About 75 per cent polling was recorded till 5.30pm in Bengal on Monday, coinciding with the end of campaigning for the last phase of polling on Thursday, April 29.
In the four constituencies of Calcutta South, about 60 per cent polling was recorded till 5.30pm. The 32 other Assembly seats where voting was held are spread over South Dinajpur, Maldah, Murshidabad and Burdwan West, the last citadel of the Congress where both the Trinamul Congress and the BJP have made significant inroads.
The most significant development of the day, however, happened some 1,672km away in Chennai where the Madras High Court sqaurely blamed the Election Commission of India for the surge in Covid cases.
“Your institution is singularly responsible for the second wave of Covid-19. Your officers should be booked on murder charges probably,” said the bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy.
“Were you on another planet when the election rallies were held?” asked Chief Justice Banerjee.
The high court is scheduled to hear the matter again on Friday and if unsatisfied with the poll panel's response, counting of votes on May 2 could be impacted.
The Madras High Court observation was welcomed by Mamata. “Their neglect, wrong decisions have put us on the brink of disaster. A Prime Minister and a home minister spent three months here just because they want to win Bengal at any cost and put everyone’s life at risk, instead of planning for steps against Covid,” the chief minister said in North Calcutta's Shyampukur, winding up 50 days of campaigning to seek a third term, her fiercest electoral battle since she led the Trinamul Congress to victory 10 years ago.
The Madras High Court’s censure of the central poll panel comes at a time when the country's health infrastructure is crumbling under pressure from the spiralling number of Covid cases. Till Monday 8am, India had recorded 3.52 lakh new cases, taking active cases to 28lakh. In Bengal, the number of Covid cases jumped to 15,889 in the last 24 hours.
'Madras HC is right'
Mamata came down heavily on the central poll panel for its refusal to club voting days amind the rise in Covid cases in the state. "They could have clubbed the phases together as the Covid situation started worsening from the third phase onwards. But they did not listen to us. They continued to be the BJP’s pet parrot,” she said.
“The court (Madras high court) is right. They could hold polls in Tamil Nadu and Kerala in one phase and Assam in two phases, but for Bengal they ordered eight-phases… I will request the EC to withdraw central forces from areas where polling has been held as they are spreading Covid. We can’t set up safe houses as schools and colleges are occupied,” she said.
Mamata reiterated that she would move the Supreme Court against the partisan behaviour of the Election Commission. “Someone has to bell the cat… I would not have raised it had they not crossed all limits,” she said, indicating the electoral tussle will drag on beyond May 2 when votes are to be counted.
Agents confined
On the seventh phase of voting, Mamata alleged that Trinamul polling agents in Asansol South were told not to leave their homes.
“I have received similar reports from Habibpur, Raninagar,” she said.
There were no reports of major violence during the polling in the 36 Assembly constituencies on Monday.
No lockdown
While the state administration has taken steps to increase beds to treat Covid patients, Mamata has ruled out imposing a lockdown.
Karnataka will go on a 14-day lockdown from Tuesday night, while the Delhi government has extended the lockdown period by another week, as states grapple with the crisis arranging for beds, oxygen and vaccination, most of which the Centre has dumped on the state’s shoulders.