A Trinamul party office at Titagarh’s Tata Gate in North 24-Parganas stood out on a day Opposition parties accused the ruling party of deploying party machinery to rig the civic polls.

Trinamul’s Dumdum-Barrackpore organisational district head and Naihati MLA Partha Bhowmick marshalled the office for the entire polling period on Sunday, making multiple calls to police officers, urging them to ensure free and fair elections in the 16 municipalities under his jurisdiction.

“I don’t need to rig the polls. I’m confident of winning all the municipalities,” Bhowmick said as the television set in front of him beamed images of alleged poll-related violence from across Bengal. By his side was Barrackpore MLA Raj Chakraborty, Bijpur MLA Subodh Adhikary and Trinamul students’ wing state chief Trinankur Bhattacharya.

A bigger room adjacent to Bhowmick’s office was filled with around 40 members of the Trinamul Chhatra Parishad. “These youngsters are constantly in touch with all the candidates since morning,” Bhattacharya said.

This correspondent spent around two hours inside Bhowmick’s office, during which the MLA received at least three complaints of Trinamul workers indulging in electoral malpractice. Two of these incidents were reported from wards 2 and 30 of Naihati municipality.

Bhowmick immediately rang up the local police and asked them to arrest the alleged perpetrators.

“Please arrest them. I don’t want voters to be disturbed,” Bhowmick was heard telling the police over phone. He called the police twice again to get an update and was told that the perpetrators had fled.

According to Bhowmick, of the 438 wards under his jurisdiction that went to polls on Sunday, violence was reported from only four places. He added the police took immediate action in all these cases and arrested seven persons in North Barrackpore’s ward 23 and two in North Dumdum’s ward 31.

The Barrackpore Lok Sabha constituency, currently represented by BJP MP and Trinamul turncoat Arjun Singh, falls under Bhowmick’s jurisdiction. The area is known for poll-related violence.

“We will win all civic bodies, beyond doubt. But I’m eyeing the 2024 general polls,” Bhowmick said with Sourav Singh, Arjun’s nephew who recently defected to Trinamul seated next to him.

In between, Bhowmick also asked his workers to lodge two police complaints against Singh over specific issues.

Though Bhowmick claimed he was trying to ensure free and fair polls, the Opposition was not convinced.

The CPM’s Gargi Chatterjee alleged that a young woman candidate of her party got rape threats and her agents were removed from the polling stations.

“Asmita Das, a first-time candidate from North Barrackpore’s ward 20, was threatened with rape by Trinamul goons. Is this democracy?” Chatterjee asked.

Incidents of bombs being hurled and opposition candidates being heckled were reported from several parts of the Dumdum and Barrackpore assemblies.

At a stone's throw from Bhowmick's office, this correspondent met some voters, who alleged that they had been prevented from voting.