KMC polls: Left, Cong, BJP protest side by side alleging rigging; TMC cries foul

Sinking their political differences, members of the CPIM, BJP and the Congress held a sit-in outside a police station in Kolkata to protest against alleged rigging by the Trinamool Congress in two booths in the area during the civic poll in the city on Sunday.Activists of the three parties, holding their respective flags, sat side by side outside Burtola police station in north Kolkatas Hatibagan area.

Sinking their political differences, members of the CPI(M), BJP and the Congress held a sit-in outside a police station in Kolkata to protest against alleged rigging by the Trinamool Congress in two booths in the area during the civic poll in the city on Sunday.

Activists of the three parties, holding their respective flags, sat side by side outside Burtola police station in north Kolkata's Hatibagan area. They shouted slogans against Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and demanded repoll in those two booths.

TMC Secretary General Partha Chatterjee said, ''The opposition parties have ganged up to discredit the Trinamool Congress and the administration. They have no agenda, have lost all contact with people, and are sure about the defeat in the polls.'' The Kolkata Municipal Corporation election was held on Sunday.

''The SEC (State Election Commission) has taken all steps for free and fair polls and the Kolkata Police have done a commendable job,'' Chatterjee added.

Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari claimed that terror tactics and rigging and rigging by the TMC in the KMC polls have snatched the democratic rights of all opposition parties- BJP as well as Left Front and the Congress. ''So, it is in the fitness of things that they all came together to protest the murder of Democracy,'' Adhikari, a BJP leader, said.

The KMC election on Sunday passed off by and large peacefully, barring a few incidents of skirmishes and hurling of bombs, with an estimated voter turnout of 63.63 per cent, according to the SEC.