Trinamool tries 'ice cream & snacks' tactic in Bengal bypolls

Kolkata, May 20 (IANS) West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress has been accused of influencing voters by offering them "ice cream and snacks" and "free transport" to the polling stations in some areas during the assembly by-polls in Naoda and Kandi constituencies in Murshidabad district on Monday.

The party had tried similar tactics in the Lok Sabha polls too.

Trinamool workers were seen distributing ice creams and candies to the people enroute the polling stations under Naoda assembly seat.

In the constituency's Bhadur, Trinamool activists arranged battery-operated rickshaws to ferry the voters to and from the polling stations "free of cost".

Local party leaders cited the unbearable heat as the reason behind the act, while the opposition parties alleged that Trinamool workers were trying to lure the voters.

By-polls to Naoda and Kandi under the Baharampur Lok Sabha constituency were necessitated as the Congress' Abu Taher Khan and Apurba Sarkar joined the Trinamool and resigned as MLAs.

Trinamool fielded Goutam Roy, the chairman of local municipality, as its candidate in Kandi while the Congress nominated Safiul Alam Khan and BJP named Sanat Mondal. The Left did not field any candidate.

In Naoda, Trinamool's Sahina Mamtaz is pitted against the Congress' Sunil Mondal and the BJP's Anupam Mondal while the RSP named Sirazul Islam Mondal as the Left Front nominee.