A number of violent incidents occurred in Siliguri on Saturday night after the civic polls ended, in contrast to the overall peace that prevailed in the city during the day.

Over 74 per cent of Siliguri voters exercised their franchise at 500-odd booths in 47 wards.

In Siliguri, people of Daspara and Sukantapally in wards 35 and 32, alleged that a group of Trinamul-backed goons reached their areas and assaulted some residents on Saturday night.

“We were beaten up by the Trinamul-backed goons last night (Saturday). They accused us of voting for the Left Front candidate,” said Pratima Das Saha, a resident of Daspara.

A group of CPM leaders including Saman Pathak, party’s Darjeeling district secretary, and senior leaders Asok Bhattacharya and Jibesh Sarkar went to the site. They spoke with the residents and held a protest march at Sukantapally.

“A group of Trinamul supporters led by former councillor Jaidip Nandi attacked the locals, because they protested against the false voting and stopped them from capturing the booth during poll hours. We want the police to demand their arrest,” said Sarkar, the Darjeeling district LF convener.

Nandi and other Trinamul leaders, however, denied the charges.

Sikha Chatterjee, the BJP MLA of Dabgram-Fulbari Assembly seat, also visited the areas and said the issue would be reported to the state election commission.

In another incident, Trinamul and BJP candidates got into a scuffle on Saturday night in ward 36 of Siliguri. Police reached the spot and tried to bring the situation under control. Suddenly, some residents attacked the police and ransacked a vehicle. Police had to use batons to disperse the crowd.

Incidents of sporadic violence reported from Bidhannagar and Asansol municipal corporation areas during poll hours made the BJP demand cancellation of the elections in these two civic bodies. Sukanta Majumdar, the state BJP chief, sent a letter to the state election commission, demanding that the elections in these two civic bodies should be cancelled.

“The polls in Bidhannagar and Asansol were converted into a complete farce… the Bharatiya Janata Party calls upon the commission to declare the same as null and void and order fresh polls,” Majumdar wrote.

The BJP, sources said, has also decided to stage demonstrations in front of police stations across the state on Monday, demanding central paramilitary forces be deployed during the February 27 elections in 108 other civic bodies.

The Left, on the other hand, demanded repolling in a number of wards of Bidhannagar civic area, while alleging that violence was perpetrated by ruling Trinamul.

Left leaders also sent a letter to the commission, citing instances of booth jamming, rigging and intimidation by goons allegedly backed by the Trinamul. These forced several polling agents to leave the polling stations, the Left leaders said.

“We want repolling in 19 wards and partial repolling in eight other wards of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation,” said a Left leader.

(Additional reporting by Arkamoy Datta Majumdar and Snehal Sengupta in Calcutta)