Nazrul Islam Beg in Alipore on Monday. (Express Photo by Partha Paul)
On the penultimate day of filing nominations, Opposition candidates from South 24 Parganas alleged that they tried to enter the Alipore treasury building in Kolkata — an administrative block of the district — but were driven out and stopped from filing their papers by TMC cadre.
Police were deployed outside the building and Section 144 of CrPC was imposed around it on Monday. However, Congress candidate for South 24 Parganas, Nazrul Islam Baig, told The Indian Express he could not file his nomination due to the “terror” of TMC cadres. “As soon as I entered, I saw 50 to 100 young TMC workers blocking the entrance… One of them asked me the purpose of my visit. When I said I had come to file nomination, he and others started pushing me and asked me to move out from there. They said they will not allow anyone to file nominations. Police were mute spectators,” he said.
He later went to Alipore police station to file a complaint. “I was told they could not accept my complaint as the officer in-charge was not there,” he added.
CPIML Liberation state committee member Dibakar Bhattacharya said two women candidates went missing after they were blocked from filing nominations. “Purnima Haldar and Kakali Hazra went missing after we were driven out of the Alipore treasury building by TMC cadre… We went… to get an FIR registered, but the officers are refusing to provide a received copy,” Bhattacharya said. Alipore police officers refused to comment.