Mamata Banerjee arrives at a polling station during the second phase of West Bengal Assembly Polls at Boyal in Nandigram on Thursday (April 1).
The Election Commission (EC) cited the report of its general observer in West Bengal on Thursday to say voting was not disrupted at any moment at polling station number 7 in Nandigram, from where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is contesting.
In a statement, the commission said "many sections of media have been covering the incident of alleged gherao of Hon'ble Chief Minister of West Bengal and crowding at Polling Station No. 7 at 210 Nandigram AC (assembly constituency) today that inter alia resulted in disruption of poll process". It said general observer Hemen Das, an IAS officer, and police observer Ashutosh Roy (IPS) were asked to go to the spot immediately.
The panel said the general observer's report was received at 4.06 pm. The statement quoted the report: "Polling at PS no 7 (Boyal Moktab Primary School) is going on smoothly. Hon'ble CM, who is also a contesting candidate, has left the place at about 3.35 pm after staying here for nearly one and half hour. It may kindly be noted that polling was not disrupted at any moment. Till now, 702 votes, out of 943, have been polled.It is 74 per cent."
The observer said nearly 3,000 people were there when he and the police observer reached the polling station. "All have left now," he said in his report.
The EC statement also said a separate handwritten complaint was received from the chief minister via the chief electoral officer (CEO) of West Bengal late in the afternoon. The same has been forwarded to Special General Observer Ajay Nayak and Special Police Observer Vivek Dube under intimation to CEO. They have been asked to send a report by 6 pm on Friday.
