Hooghly: BJP supporters vandalise EVM over rumours of rigging

Several supporters of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Locket Chatterjee on Monday allegedly barged into a polling booth in the Hooghly constituency, West Bengal and vandalised an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) claiming that it was rigged by the Trinamool Congress (TMC). Later the local villagers, reportedly TMC supporters, confronted the vandals and the situation turned into violent clashes.

Locket Chatterjee reached a polling booth in Hooghly, a constituency she is contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from, along with several supporters after rumours of EVM rigging surfaced. Her supporters began destroying the EVM placed in the booth and did not respond to any questions asked by the Times Now crew present at the time of the incident.

While speaking to media, Chatterjee alleged that immense kind of rigging is taking place

in the polling booths across the Hooghly constituency. She also said that villagers in the area raised pro-Mamata Banerjee slogans while she was taking a round of the constituency.

BJP's Locket Chatterjee, Congress' Pratul Saha, CPIM's Pradip Saha and TMC's Ratna De Nag are locking horns for the Hooghly Lok Sabha seat this time out. Ratna De Nag is the reigning Member of Parliament (MP) from the constituency since 2009.

Hooghly, along with six other constituencies, in West Bengal has gone to polls in the fifth phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on May 6. Like previous phases, the polling in the state was once again marred by violence with several incidents of violence being reported from the state on Monday.