Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Alamy Stock Photo

Seven killed in Indian village election clashes

Footage aired by local broadcasters showed rival party workers roaming streets with batons, as well as ballot boxes being set alight outside polling stations.

AT LEAST SEVEN people were killed and dozens more injured in India today after clashes over local polls in West Bengal, a state notorious for political violence during election campaigns.

India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has in recent years worked hard to gain a toehold in West Bengal – ruled by a communist party for much of its history – to expand its reach beyond its Hindi-speaking northern heartlands.

Voters are currently casting their ballots in a fierce contest to elect municipal leaders, with more than 200,000 candidates across the state of 104 million people.

“Seven people have been killed and dozens wounded in poll-related violence in different villages across the state,” Jawed Shamim, a senior officer in West Bengal’s police force, told AFP.

Another police official, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media, said five of the dead were from the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress party.

The other two were affiliated with the BJP and West Bengal’s Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Footage aired by local broadcasters showed rival party workers roaming streets with batons, as well as ballot boxes snatched and set alight outside polling stations.

Other voting booths saw a heavy security presence with paramilitary troops standing guard to keep order.

More than 200 crude bombs – a staple of West Bengal elections that are sold cheaply on the black market to maim or intimidate voters – had also been seized during the polls, police said.

State election commissioner Rajiv Sinha told local broadcaster Republic that his agency had received more than 1,300 complaints of vote-rigging, interference at polling booths and “sporadic incidents of violence”.

“We cannot claim that polling was peaceful,” he added.

Decades of violence 

West Bengal has been ruled by Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee since 2011, when her party defeated the Communist-led administration that had ruled the state for the prior three decades.

Banerjee, a fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has accused his Hindu-nationalist BJP of attempting to import divisive sectarian politics into the state, which has a large Muslim minority.

Modi has in turn accused her administration of endemic corruption.

But the roots of political violence in the state stretch back decades, with police recording thousands of murders around election time since the 1960s.

During state polls in 2021 – won emphatically by Trinamool but with a strong BJP showing – several activists from both parties were shot or hacked to death, their bodies sometimes hung from trees as an intimidation tactic.

– © AFP 2023

Author
View comments
Close
Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John O'Reilly
    Favourite John O'Reilly
    Report
    May 9th 2023, 4:49 PM

    Erm, did he just admit to breaking the law while standing beside the Minister for Justice?

    486
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John O'Reilly
    Favourite John O'Reilly
    Report
    May 9th 2023, 5:09 PM

    @John O’Reilly: Further, a direct link between his facilitating the land being available for sale and the decision to sell it to his wife (the latter meeting referencing the decision Niall Collins participated in) has now been established.

    275
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jules
    Favourite Jules
    Report
    May 9th 2023, 5:53 PM

    Well done to the Ditch for shining a light on this.

    396
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute garymcmanus
    Favourite garymcmanus
    Report
    May 9th 2023, 4:45 PM

    As said above , journal please keep comments on and let the crooked government know what everyone thinks , it seems one law for them and another for us

    428
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Chris Jordan
    Favourite Chris Jordan
    Report
    May 9th 2023, 5:50 PM

    In any normal functioning government, this guys position would be completely untenable. He should go.

    339
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Richard Starling
    Favourite Richard Starling
    Report
    May 9th 2023, 5:01 PM

    Speaking out of both sides of the mouth at once and both sides lying. These politicians, from all sides, just cannot be trusted. Unfortunately the old guard will be voted back in because they will freeze any new blood.
    Sorry lads, but I can see The Journal chopping this section, we are too close to truth that the government doesn’t want to hear

    332
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Lou Cipher
    Favourite Lou Cipher
    Report
    May 9th 2023, 5:27 PM

    FFers gonna do what FFers do.
    It’s in their DNA, been that way for the 55yrs I’ve been on this planet.
    Just not sure why people vote for them, I never, ever have (or FG).

    269
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Donal Desmond
    Favourite Donal Desmond
    Report
    May 9th 2023, 5:47 PM

    Niall Collins response was akin to Joseph Goebbels stating the Russians have been defeated as the stood above the bunker in Berlin..
    Maybe a bit over the top,but Jesus..Goebbels would have been proud of the response of Collins, as would Duffy’s Circus.

    176
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Today's Gender is
    Favourite Today's Gender is
    Report
    May 9th 2023, 6:18 PM

    Sure this is old news. The ditch were covering this while legacy media were out golfing and schmoozing with TDs and Civil servants.
    Go away out of that Journal

    147
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute M Bowe
    Favourite M Bowe
    Report
    May 9th 2023, 7:15 PM

    How dare journalists form a kangaroo court to question a minister of an FFG government over his blatant breaking of laws. Don’t they know such elites are above you plebs and laws which keep ye all in your place.

    129
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Patrick Newell
    Favourite Patrick Newell
    Report
    May 9th 2023, 7:07 PM

    so after all the deflection, spin, abuse of people who asked the questions about this lad, the fact russia was brought into it in some act of desperation by the FFG mob support….turns out the thing which they all said wasnt really true and nothing to see here was actually true all along….Guess its another round of lessons will be learned from this I am sure we will be told no doubt

    94
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Smith
    Favourite John Smith
    Report
    May 9th 2023, 5:50 PM

    What a load of auld waffle – AULD waffle… not regular ‘waffle’, nor ‘old’ waffle – just plain ‘auld’ waffle.

    109
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jb Walshe
    Favourite Jb Walshe
    Report
    May 9th 2023, 7:37 PM

    Another bent politician like the droves of them caught before him,he looks like a right snake in that photo

    103
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brian
    Favourite Brian
    Report
    May 9th 2023, 6:21 PM

    “Please keep the comments on so they can see we’re not happy”… “let’s go on a march so they know we mean business”.. Pathetic. Don’t you people get it? They don’t care what you think. They don’t care if their actions are unjust. They don’t care about your little marches. They dont care if they’re corrupt. They don’t care if you’re suffering. They care only about themselves and keeping the ruling class in power. They don’t even care about your votes because they are in charge of elections. They control the counting of votes. They control which candidates are promoted and which candidates are slandered in their media. They. Control. You. There are NO political solutions to the problems we face. If we don’t collectively wise up and grow a spine, we are all totally screwed.

    129
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute john mac
    Favourite john mac
    Report
    May 9th 2023, 5:55 PM

    I see said the blind man but the blind man couldn’t see

    76
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Declan Moran
    Favourite Declan Moran
    Report
    May 9th 2023, 8:55 PM

    As I said on another post today. Two words come to mind, neck & jockey. Never liked this smarmy git. He needs to be thrown out and as a TD aswell, not just as a junior minister. This country is a total joke

    87
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ronan Lawler
    Favourite Ronan Lawler
    Report
    May 9th 2023, 5:32 PM

    Blah blah blah, same old rubbish, some things never change

    119
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute William Slevin
    Favourite William Slevin
    Report
    May 10th 2023, 8:55 AM

    Now theirs an investigation into a possible breach of the 2001 government act in limerick by the gardai…..interesting…very interesting…

    22
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fran Mooney
    Favourite Fran Mooney
    Report
    May 10th 2023, 7:46 AM

    Surprised they let people comment on this as I see it looks like the journal is government funded

    18
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Margaret Deacon
    Favourite Margaret Deacon
    Report
    May 9th 2023, 5:51 PM

    This is getting boring

    20
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Donal Desmond
    Favourite Donal Desmond
    Report
    May 9th 2023, 6:16 PM

    @Margaret Deacon: Not for Niall Collins.

    93
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Patrick Newell
    Favourite Patrick Newell
    Report
    May 9th 2023, 7:08 PM

    @Margaret Deacon: Not really, probably would be if collins and his mob had just held their hands up and told us about all this from the start

    50
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brian
    Favourite Brian
    Report
    May 9th 2023, 7:39 PM

    @Tom: People need a kick up the ar$e

    31
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Robert Halvey
    Favourite Robert Halvey
    Report
    May 10th 2023, 10:31 AM

    Over a 100 years of the ffg entitled chancers has created a pig headed arrogance, of how dare you undesirables think we owe you any kind of honesty.

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tim Murphy
    Favourite Tim Murphy
    Report
    May 9th 2023, 6:52 PM

    YAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWNNNNNNNNNNNN!

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mick Hyland
    Favourite Mick Hyland
    Report
    May 10th 2023, 4:35 AM

    Enough already with all this stuff, there’s work to be done, move on.

    6
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel