Six candidates, including four from the ruling Trinamul Congress, were roughed up by rival party activists as Bengal voted in the third phase of the Assembly elections on Tuesday, prompting chief minister Mamata Banerjee to accuse the Election Commission of inertia.

Although violence during elections is not uncommon, rarely have so many poll candidates been attacked simultaneously, raising the spectre of more unrest in the remaining five phases of the elections that have witnessed unprecedented pent-up tensions. Most of the attacks took place when the candidates arrived to protest alleged instances of electoral malpractice.

Speaking in the afternoon at a campaign rally in Alipurduar, Mamata said she had received over 100 reports of assault and violence on her party’s candidates and workers from across Bengal. She accused the Election Commission, yet again, of inertia despite formal complaints.

“They inflicted a serious injury on our SC (Scheduled Caste) candidate Sujata (Mondal Khan)… while she was visiting a booth. They also thrashed a candidate in Khanakul…. In Canning East, security forces prevented our candidate Saokat (Molla) from entering a booth,” the chief minister said.

“There have been numerous such instances today of attacks that did not spare the candidates. We have lodged repeated complaints with the Election Commission but to no avail,” Mamata said.

Trinamul’s Arambagh candidate, Sujata, estranged wife of the BJP state youth wing chief and Bishnupur MP Saumitra Khan, was chased out of the Arandi South Primary School polling station in the constituency by a stick-wielding mob. She and her personal security officer were allegedly hit on the head with sticks.

Around 11am, Sujata had arrived at the school to examine complaints of booth-capturing by the BJP. As soon as she tried to enter, she faced resistance from local BJP supporters.

She allegedly twisted the arm of a BJP supporter during an argument. The woman suffered a fracture, the BJP alleged. Enraged BJP supporters attacked Sujata, who later denied having attacked anybody and alleged she had been assaulted without provocation.

A witness said: “The aggression with which she (Sujata) started abusing and assaulting the local people, it enraged them. They chased her with sticks…. She tried to flee in her car but local people blocked the road. She had to run for her life with her security personnel through a field.”

The witness added: “They fell a couple of times. The security personnel too tried to stop the people from advancing by brandishing their service firearms. But the mob of over 200 did not care. The candidate and at least one security person got hit on the head with bamboo sticks…. They kept running for about 1.5 km.”

Sujata, who had switched to Trinamul from the BJP ahead of the polls, later alleged an attempt on her life, accusing her former party of planning it. “They (the BJP) think that by resorting to violence they will secure victory in seats such as Arambagh. They are badly mistaken. Candidates like me have been fielded. We do not fear even death,” she said.

Arambagh sub-divisional police officer Abhishek Mondal said five people had been arrested.

The problems did not end there for Sujata. Around 4.30pm, while she was touring the Dihi Bagnan area, a mob allegedly hurled stones and bricks at her car, demanding she leave. The windshield was smashed.

BJP Arambagh chief Biman Ghosh, also the party’s Pursurah candidate, accused Sujata of terrorising innocent villagers, assaulting a woman and throwing out cooked food from a house, thus triggering a “spontaneous outburst”.

“People intensely dislike her here, anyway. She is an outsider and is extremely aggressive…. Whatever happened, she brought it on herself,” Ghosh said.

Trinamul’s Khanakul (Hooghly) candidate Najibul Karim ran into protests when he arrived at Gaurangachowk to probe allegations that his party’s election agents had been driven out by the BJP.

After reinstating the polling agents and encouraging Trinamul voters to return to the queues, Karim was about to leave when a group of alleged BJP workers armed with sticks thrashed him and his personal security officer. Both suffered multiple injuries.

“As the candidate himself was beaten up and taken away for hospitalisation, the Trinamul polling agents once again ran away in fear…. Soon, many Trinamul-supporting voters went home without casting their votes,” a local resident said.

Mondal, the sub-divisional police officer, said three arrests had been made.

In neighbouring Howrah’s Uluberia North constituency, Trinamul candidate Nirmal Majhi, a minister of state, had arrived at a booth in Muktir Chowk following allegations of BJP-backed malpractice when he faced demonstrations by the Opposition party’s activists who refused to let him enter.

Police sources said that when Majhi refused to relent, the BJP group allegedly started hurling bricks at him. His security personnel immediately gave him a helmet, but a policeman in his security detail got hit in the head. He needed several stitches.

This newspaper could not contact Majhi as his mobile phone was switched off.

In the neighbouring constituency of Uluberia South, BJP candidate Papiya Adhikari had been touring the constituency when she found out that a party worker had been attacked and admitted to Uluberia State General Hospital.

Adhikari said that when she tried to visit him around 12.30pm, local Trinamul leader Akbar Sheikh and his supporters blocked her way before assaulting her physically and verbally.

The local Trinamul leadership said the BJP had created “some tension” and people had reacted “spontaneously”.

Some distance away at Falta, South 24-Parganas, BJP candidate Bidhan Parui faced demonstrations by Trinamul activists at the Bellsinha High School polling station around 11.30am. They allegedly slapped him and threw bricks at him.

“That was not the only place. I was similarly heckled or assaulted in other booths too. I told the police but nothing happened. I have complained to the Election Commission,” Parui said.

In Canning East, Trinamul candidate Saokat Molla accused central forces personnel and ISF supporters of heckling and assaulting him. He demonstrated for an hour from 11am on Bulergarh Road.

“I was simply trying to draw the administration’s attention to the stocking of bombs by the ISF in the area…. The central forces, their jawans, roughed me up instead of acting on my complaint…. ISF supporters slapped me. I demonstrated till the poll panel sent a team and took formal note of my complaint,” Saokat said.