1. Villager Hacked to Death In Clash Near Booth, EC Seeks DM’s Report
A 52-year-old man was killed during a clash in Murshidabad’s Bhagabangola, becoming Bengal’s first casualty of the 2019 poll season, as five constituencies in the state voted for the third phase of the general elections on Tuesday.
Turnout remained impressive, with all five seats — Balurghat, Malda North Malda South, Murshidabad and Jangipur — recording at least 75% polling. But Abdul Kalam Tiarul Shiekh’s violent death stood out, prompting the Election Commission to ask for a report from the district administration. In Malda, a presiding officer was removed from poll duty by state chief electoral officer Ariz Aftab for casting bogus votes.
(Source: The Times Of India)
2. Prime Minister’s Post Is Not Up For Auction, Modi Says In Asansol
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday hit out at chief minister Mamata Banerjee, saying that the country’s top job “is not up for auction” that can be bought by ill-gotten money.
Calling Banerjee “speedbreaker Didi” at a BJP gathering in Asansol, Modi said: “Our didi, contesting a handful of seats, is dreaming of becoming Prime Minister. If the PM’s post could be auctioned, then Congress and didi would come with whatever they have made through corruption. Didi, yeh PM pad auction mein nahi hai jo Saradha, Narada ke paiso se kharida jaa sake (this post is not on auction that it can be bought from the money from Saradha and Narada).”
(Source: The Times Of India)
3. Central Troops Helping BJP, Says Mamata
Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday accused a section of central forces of asking voters in Bengal to vote for the BJP.
Hours after the chief minister made the allegation at a public meeting in Hooghly’s Arambagh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told a rally in Asansol that Mamata was “intimidating” the central forces.
Mamata said her party had lodged a complaint with the Election Commission. “I have heard central forcers were sitting inside booth number 166, 167 at Englishbazar in Malda South and influencing elections. In Itahar (part of Balurghat Lok Sabha seat), they were asking people to vote in favour of the BJP.”
(Source: The Telegraph)
4. Morcha Fields Binay In Bypoll
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Tuesday declared its president Binay Tamang as the candidate for the Darjeeling Assembly bypoll with a “100 percent guarantee” that he would be a cabinet minister in charge of hill affairs in the event of his win.
The bypoll was necessitated after MLA Amar Singh Rai quit to contest from the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency on a Trinamool ticket.
The bypoll will be held on 19 May. The decision to field Tamang was taken by a meeting of the Morcha’s central committee.
Keshav Raj Pokhrel, a central committee member, had claimed earlier that Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had promised to make its candidate a minister if he won the bypoll.
(Source: The Telegraph)
5. Attack On BJP Candidate at Rally
Bolpur BJP candidate Ramprasad Das was accosted at a rally, chased 2km through paddy fields and two of his colleagues thrashed on Tuesday by alleged “Trinamul-backed goons”.
The attackers armed with sticks and rods disrupted Das’s campaign at Malidapara village in East Burdwan’s Ausgram and ransacked two cars and motorbikes of BJP workers.
Ausgram falls under the Bolpur parliamentary constituency. Trinamool denied the allegation.
“Twenty men chased us. …I ran with my two guards for 2km through the fields. I am 53 years old. I suffered injuries in my legs while fleeing the Trinamool-backed goons. A brickbat was thrown at my head but it missed me,” Das, a Visva-Bharati teacher, said.
(Source: The Telegraph)
6. Lankan In City Frets Over Brother’s Fate
The coordinated blasts in Colombo on Easter Sunday has left Maya Rawat perplexed. The Sri Lankan, married to an Indian entrepreneur — Dinesh Rawat — for nearly four decades, resides in Kolkata, but spends a few months with her family in Sri Lanka every year. Back in the city after a three-month trip to Colombo, Maya said she did not have any inkling of communal tension that could have led to the deadly blasts.
“Sri Lanka saw a lot of violence and blasts during the Tamil uprising. But ever since the LTTE was crushed 10 years ago, the island nation has been an oasis of peace. This allowed tourism to flourish. The country has progressed on several fronts. Both Christians and Muslims in Colombo have lived peacefully,” said Maya, whose brother’s house is within half a kilometre of the three hotels that were targeted by suicide bombers.
(Source: The Times Of India)
7. App Cab Driver Assaults Sergeant
A 39-year-old sergeant Jiten Chakraborty was attacked by an app-can driver on Jatindra Mohan Avenue in the Sovabazar area on Monday.
The sergeant, attached with Jorabagan traffic guard, was on duty at 51B, Jatindra Mohan Avenue when he noticed an auto rickshaw getting involved in a minor accident with an app cab.
“I intervened and decided to call in the local police. At that moment, this app cab driver, whom we later identified as Omprakash Singh (34) and residing at Cossipore, tried to speed away after breaking a signal and almost hitting another other app cab. My constable caught him and brought him to me,” recalled Chakraborty.
(Source: The Times Of India)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)