India, April 7 -- The curse of electoral violence continued to blemish Bengal even as sporadic clashes and complaints of rigging marked the third round of the 8-phase Assembly elections. A total number of 31 seats in three districts of Howrah, Hooghly and South 24 Parganas went to polls on Tuesday.
In what looked like anything but a good advertisement for peaceful polling two persons were murdered, many others injured --- in intermittent clashes --- and no less than seven candidates were brutally roughed up by supporters of rival parties. So much so that, Dr Nirmal Maji a sitting TMC MLA was seen approaching a polling booth with a crash helmet on.
Notwithstanding the daylong tumult the third phase of elections recorded an appreciable 80 p...