Champa Manna, 40, a homemaker of Daporchak village in the Purshura Assembly constituency, stepped into the polling booth and presented her documents with the presiding officer to prove her credentials as the polling agent of the Trinamul Congress.

Manna stayed inside the booth for six hours after her husband Pintu, a Trinamul worker, had allegedly been disallowed from entering the premises as the polling agent. She did not let the booth remain un-represented by Trinamul till another woman Chhaya Mali, a local gram panchayat member, came as her substitute.

“After BJP workers did not allow my husband, I went there as a polling agent and did not bow down before the threats,” said Champa.

Priyanka Das at her home after working as Trinamul’s election agent Telegraph picture

Priyanka Das, 24, was deputed as a Trinamul polling agent at one of the booths at Parul Basic High School in Arambagh for the first time. She was allegedly harassed by a group of BJP workers outside the booth but did not leave till the voting got over.

“I faced taunts every time I stepped out to breathe some fresh air. The BJP workers taunted me as I became the polling agent of my party despite being a woman. But they failed to oust me from the booth,” said Priyanka.

Priyanka and Champa are among over 30 women who became the polling agents of Trinamul for the first time in their life. Apart from the women, Trinamul leaders said they had tried their best to re-deploy polling agents at most of the booths from where the BJP had tried to oust their men.

A polling agent at a booth is vital for a party as the person looks after the entire process with the right to object if any malpractice is reported. The absence of a polling agent gives an advantage to rivals.

Trinamul had failed to depute agents at booths in the second phase of the elections, including in Nandigram where chief minister Mamata Banerjee took on her former protégé Suvendu Adhikari who was fielded by the BJP.

Trinamul insiders said the party had faced such a crisis with the polling agents for the first time since they had come to the power in 2011. After the second phase of the voting, senior Trinamul leaders, along with the I-PAC team led by poll consultant Prashant Kishor, held several meetings to depute polling agents courageous enough to sit at problematic booths. The decision was to depute women as polling agents.

Eight constituencies in Hooghly went to the polls on Tuesday and the Trinamul insiders said the party faced a problem with election agents at 100-odd booths when the voting started at 7am.

“We did not have any booth without a polling agent this time. We redeployed polling agents on around 100 polling premises despite threats from the BJP’s hooligans. According to the advice of chief minister, our workers assigned women as polling agents in at least 20 booths,” said Dilip Yadav, Trinamul’s Hooghly president and the party candidate in the Pursurah Assembly seat.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had flayed Trinamul leaders in the districts on the issue of polling agents and directed them to depute women.

“I am not ready to listen to excuses like BJP’s threats or BJP’s attacks for not (someone from Trinamul) being present at the booth on the day of polling. I request those who are not brave, please don’t go to the booth. I am asking you (leaders) to depute women as polling agents at a booth. Assign my Kanyashree sisters, my students as polling agents,” Mamata said at a rally in Hooghly’s Khanakul on Sunday.

“In case the brave hearts are not available, find a woman who can argue and who has the strength and place them as polling agents. Depute the women at booths and I will see who comes to threaten (them),” Mamata said.

The Trinamul insiders said despite several efforts, the party could not post polling agents in at least 30 booths in the district. There are many polling stations, mostly in minority areas, where the BJP also failed to deploy polling agents.

Gopal Roy, a Trinamul youth leader in Pursurah, said Champa Manna was deputed for the first time as an agent and fought till the poll was over, along with another woman polling agent.

“The BJP tried to drive out our agents from booths but party workers deputed women and persons with strong mindset at the booths,” said Roy.

Champa said she was new but she learnt the job of a polling agent from her husband. “I was new but I had some idea as my husband has been associated with the party for long. I went to the booth and tried my best.”

Sources said the BJP had driven away two polling agents, Panmani Hembram and Rasulal Hembram, from two booths in Goghat. But they were redeployed by Trinamul MLA and candidate Manas Majumdar within half an hour.

“I went there as soon as I heard our agents were driven out. I redeployed them at the booth,” said Majumdar.

Sources said all candidates had conducted a meeting on Monday with their polling agents and asked them not to leave the booths and report if they faced any problem anywhere.

“We had prepared a list of polling agents with their numbers. We kept another set ready for most of the booths. There was a dedicated team to see whether polling agents are driven out of any booth,” said a Trinamul leader.