A man, 52, who had queued up to vote was killed in a clash between party workers during third phase of polling in West Bengal’s Mushirabad district on Tuesday.

Initial reports identified the man as Tiyarul Kalam.

His son told reporters that he and his father had queued up to vote at a polling station in Mushirabad district’s Bhagabangola area when Trinamool and Congress workers clashed, reportedly over allegations of proxy voting.

The sequence of events is still unclear. Kalam’s son said his father got caught up in the clash and was mercilessly thrashed with sticks before he was stabbed. He was taken to the hospital but it was too late.

Congress won three of the five seats — Malda North, Malda South, Jangipur — in Malda and Murshidabad districts in 2014. The ruling Trinamool Congress has never won any of the four Lok Sabha seats in the two districts, which have traditionally been the Congress’s strongholds.The TMC won the fifth seat, Balurghat in 2014, and faces a tough fight from the BJP this time.

There were multiple reports of violence in the state where five Lok Sabha constituencies are voting amid reports of hurling of crude bombs and intimidation. In one case in Murshidabad’s Domkal municipality, three TMC workers were injured by a crude bomb hurled at them.

West Bengal, which has 42 seats, is voting in seven phases of Lok Sabha elections to ensure that the Election Commission can deploy adequate security personnel.

First Published: Apr 23, 2019 16:14 IST