INDIA ELECTIONS New clashes hit Kolkata

Police made new arrests following clashes and poured thousands of security forces into the eastern city of Kolkata on Friday as tensions mounted ahead of the final round of voting in India’s marathon election.
Supporters of rightwing prime minister Narendra Modi and opposition followers clashed in the eastern metropolis late Thursday after Modi held a rally there.
It was the second night of street battles between activists of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the regional Trinamool Congress this week.
Police said at least 26 arrests were made on Friday over the latest unrest as they bolstered security before Sunday’s voting.
India’s six-week election ends on Sunday with the seventh round of voting in eight northern states, including West Bengal, where Kolkata is the capital.
With Modi seeking a second term, but scrambling to hold on to his overall majority, the results will be announced on May 23.
Modi’s BJP has been aggressively campaigning in West Bengal, hoping to making gains from the TMC, which controls the state, to make up for losses expected in other states. 
An official election observer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there have been more than 300 incidents of poll violence across West Bengal since campaigning started on April 11.
‘Kolkata will witness an unprecedented deployment of security forces before Sunday,’ the official added.
Tens of thousands of troops and paramilitaries were expected in the city of 4.5 million people during the weekend.
Security has already been toughened at Kolkata’s two main railway stations, government offices and metro stations.
Campaigning for the election was ended a day early in West Bengal because of the troubles and the sale of alcohol in Kolkata is now banned until after voting.
Bars in the Park Street entertainment district were closed on Thursday night.
The final day of voting will also be held in the key states of Uttar Pradesh, including Modi’s constituency of Varanasi, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh.
The BJP won 282 seats of the 543 at stake in 2014, in one of the biggest landslides triumphs in India’s post-independence history.
Analysts predict Modi’s party will lose seats this time and could need a coalition to form a new government.
Meanwhile, for nearly a decade, Pragya Thakur was known mostly as the saffron-clad Hindu ascetic shuttling in and out of Indian courts, flanked by police, facing charges under an anti-terrorism law for plotting a bomb attack on Muslims, reports Reuters.
Last month, the 49-year-old was fielded as a candidate by prime minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the current general election, in which he is seeking a second term.
Overnight, Thakur, who has been out on bail since 2017, emerged as a symbol of a Hindu nationalist movement that is showing increasing intolerance towards Muslims in the Hindu-dominated nation.
The five years of Modi’s rule have seen an increasing number of attacks on Muslims by right-wing groups. But the brazenness of Thakur’s candidacy has still stunned many.
It’s the first time a leading political party in India has fielded a candidate accused of terrorism in an election.
‘They are addressing a very extreme form of the Hindutva fold,’ said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a New Delhi-based biographer of Modi, referring to the BJP’s Hindu-first ideology.
Thakur says she had nothing to do with the 2008 explosion near several mosques in the Muslim-majority town of Malegaon in western India. Six Muslims were killed and more than a hundred people injured. According to court filings, the motorcycle on which the explosives were strapped was Thakur’s, and she was among those who planned the attack to avenge ‘jihadi activities.’
Indian law allows candidates charged with crimes to contest elections, but not convicts. The trial against Thakur started in December but a final verdict is not expected anytime soon.
Modi and BJP leaders have come out strongly in defence of her candidature.
BJP president Amit Shah told a television channel last month that Thakur was given a ticket to contest ‘so that the whole world can know that these accusations against her were fabricated’.
The BJP argues there is no such thing as a Hindu terrorist, and portrays charges against her as an affront to all Hindus.
‘You are saying that a saffron-clad person is a terrorist? What is this?’ said Prabhat Jha, the BJP’s national vice president in central India’s Bhopal city, where Thakur is contesting. He was referring to the robes worn by Hindu ascetics.
Voting in Bhopal was on May 12, and results are due on May 23.
Thakur stirred fresh controversy on Thursday when she called the right-wing Hindu, Nathuram Godse, who killed India’s independence hero Mohandas ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi in 1948, a patriot. ‘Those who call him a terrorist should look within. This election will deliver a fitting reply to such people,’ she said.
The BJP quickly distanced itself from the comments and Thakur later apologised.
‘Whatever has been said about Gandhiji or Godse (Nathuram Godse), it’s terrible,’ Modi said in a television interview on Friday.
‘In a civilised society, this kind of language and thinking does not work... I cannot forgive her.’
Thakur declined to be interviewed for this story. According to her family and supporters, she is a pious nationalist and champion of women’s rights who was a former youth politics leader known for fiery speeches.
Born in a village in central India, she grew up to become a leader of a youth group linked to the BJP, and usually clad in a shirt and jeans, hair cropped short, came to be referred to as ‘didi’, or elder sister, her sister Upma said.
Former members of the youth group said Thakur was known then as a ‘dabang’, or daredevil, not afraid to pick a fight. One said she would carry a ‘katta’ - a locally-made pistol – although others said there was no proof.
Days after gaining the candidacy, Thakur boasted about her role in demolishing a 16th century mosque in the northern Ayodhya city in 1992 – an event that sparked some of India’s deadliest communal riots.
‘I was there, I had broken the structure, and I will go back to build the temple,’ Thakur said in a campaign speech, echoing BJP’s promise to build a temple at the mosque site.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net