Election violence grips India’s West Bengal state
Police break up clashes after workers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP party took on those from the regional party Trinamool Congress
By Rajendra Jadhav and Subrata Nag Choudhury Mumbai/Kolkata — India’s battleground state of West Bengal took the centre stage in the fourth phase of a staggered general election on Monday after clashes broke out between supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party and a regional bloc. In West Bengal, a populous eastern state where Modi is trying to gain seats to offset likely losses in northern India, security forces chased away people wielding sticks after workers from Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took on those from regional Trinamool Congress, police said. An official with the Election Commission of India said paramilitary forces fired a blank round inside a polling station in another constituency in the state after a scuffle between voters and troops, who were demanding that cellphones be kept aside while voting, as rules state. There were no immediate reports of any poll-related injuries in West Bengal, where at least one person was killed and thre...
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