TMC, BJP to make final vote appeal today in Bengal over poll violence

The Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party are set to embark on a hectic campaigning schedule on Thursday as canvassing for nine West Bengal constituencies will end at 10 pm due to prevailing violence in the state.

New Delhi: The Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party are set to embark on a hectic campaigning schedule on Thursday as canvassing for nine West Bengal constituencies will end at 10 pm, a day before its scheduled deadline.

Reacting to the spate of poll-related violence in West Bengal, the poll body on took unprecedented steps by invoking Article 324 of the Constitution to curtail canvassing.

The nine constituencies affected by the ban are Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat, Jaynagar, Mathurapur, Jadavpur, Diamond Harbour, South and North Kolkata, which are scheduled to go to polls in the last phase on May 19. These 9 seats are considered to be TMC's stronghold.

But the interesting fact is that, in 2014, BJP was in second place in two of these 9 seats.

Behind the votes, both parties are so curious that the competition is turning into violence.

JDU leader KC Tyagi has also criticised the prevailing violence in West Bengal.

The oppositions are blaming BJP for the violence in the state.