There were islands of resistance on Sunday’s civic polls where voters and Opposition parties leaders not only thwarted loot of votes, but also chased away goons and in a few cases beat them up in the face of armed attacks.

Local residents at ward11 of Sonamukhi town in Bankura put up resistance when a group of some 40 goons tried to force entry into the booth. People confronted and chased the goons when they tried to flee in a car. The speeding car injured resident Biswajit Guin.

At Bongaon in North 24-Parganas, residents of ward 1 turned violent when despite their repeated pleas, police refused to disperse a group of outsiders who were allegedly intimidating voters.

“Goons later entered the polling stations and began looting votes when 500 local residents chased them,” said voter Aleya Seikh.

“It was painful to see that policemen shamelessly encouraging goons and threatening us when we asked them to clear the area of outsiders. We were compelled to react to save our votes,” added Aleya. Residents claimed people chased goons amid gunfire and bombing.

Bongaon police district SP Tarun Halder refuted allegations of gunfire and bomb attacks by goons during polling. “There was a minor clash between rival groups but the goons fled before police arrived,” he said.

Basundhara Biswas, an Independent candidate, said: “It was an outburst of the people, who undermined threat to their lives to chase goons.”

In East Burdwan’s Kalna, a group of residents led by CPM thwarted alleged attempts of booth capturing in wards 2 and 8 of the town. Residents gheraoed around 500 goons allegedly of the local Trinamul leadership and forced them out.

In ward 11 of Santipur, Trinamul candidate Snigdha Bandopadhyay accused the CPM supporters of heckling her. Residents said she was moving in the area with outsiders and tried to jam booths when CPM candidate Moumita Mahato protested. People forced Snigdha to leave.

In East Burdwan's Guskara, residents managed to resist looting of votes in wards 6 and 7. However, when protesters turned their ire on cops for being mute spectators, the police retaliated.”This helped goons sent by Trinamul leader Anubrata Mondal from Birbhum to recapture the booths. Mondal sent around 3,000 goons who took over voting in all 16 wards of Guskara Municipality,” said local CPM leader Alamgir Mondal.

(Additional reprting by Snehamoy Chakraborty and Anshuman Phadikar)