Several incidents of clashes were reported from various parts of West Bengal on Monday as unidentified miscreants allegedly attacked leaders of Opposition parties while on their way to file nomination papers for the July 8 panchayat polls in the state, said a senior official. These incidents were reported in Daspur (Paschim Medinipur), Kakdwip (South 24 Parganas), Raninagar (Murshidabad), Saktinagar and Barshul (both in Purba Bardhaman) and Minakhan (North 24 Parganas), he said, as per a PTI report.
A party office of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was "vandalised" at Minakhan in Basirhat subdivision and the candidate was "assaulted" by the miscreants when he was going to file his nomination, the official said, as per the report.
In another incident, Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Dibakar Gharami was allegedly attacked by unidentified people at Sonamukhi in Bankura district while he was heading to the nomination centre.
In the wake of such incidents, the state election commission (SEC) directed all the district magistrates and superintendent of police to issue prohibitory orders under Section 144 of Criminal Procedure Code in a 1-kilometre radius of all nomination centres across the state.
The orders, which will be in force till Thursday, have been imposed to ensure that the nomination process passed off safely, said an official, as per a report by PTI.
“We decided to impose prohibitory orders in a 1km radius of nomination centres,” the official said, adding that an order to this effect was issued by the SEC on Sunday.
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As per the SEC, only two people would be allowed to step inside the nomination centre for filing papers, he said.
As per the official, over 10,000 nomination papers were filed for the rural body polls on the first two days across the state with the majority numbers filed by opposition parties.