Bengal panchayat polls: With three more deaths, casualty figure rises to 39

With two deaths reported on Monday, the total casualty figure in poll-related violence for the panchayat elections in West Bengal has reached 38.

Local Trinamool Congress leader from Raninagar Murshidabad district, Sirajul Sheikh, and CPI(M) activist from Krishnanagar in Nadia district, Sukur Ali Sheikh, both of whom were severely injured and admitted to hospital on the polling day of Saturday, succumbed to injuries on Monday morning.

In the third incident, the body of local BJP leader from Dhubulia also in Nadia district, Oshto Mondal, who was missing since the polling day morning, was recovered from the bushes adjacent to a pond on Monday morning.

With this the total death count since the announcement of polling dates on June 8 rises to 36, with 19 recorded till Friday night and 20 added since Saturday morning.

Fresh reports of death came at a time when re-polling for 696 booths has been conducted since Monday morning under heavy deployment of central armed forces personnel.

The civil society has started raising questions that had there been similar central armed forces deployment on the polling day of Saturday as it is done today, the death toll in the poll-related violence would not have been so high.

Meanwhile, the Union home minister has sought a report from the state government on the massive violence and bloodbath over the polls on Saturday.

The inspector general of Border Security Force (BSF), who was the central nodal officer for the rural civic body polls, is also slated to send a report to the Union home ministry complaining of the non- cooperation from the office of the state election commission in effective deployment and utilization of the armed forces.