Kolkata: Back to back late-evening squalls on Monday and Tuesday left a trail of damage across parts of Kolkata, tearing apart election campaign materials, including hoardings, banners, flexes and party flags, catching workers of several political parties off guard and forcing suspension of several voter outreach programmes midway across the city.With daytime temperatures soaring, many candidates have been organising rallies, meetings and door-to-door campaigning towards evening to ensure better turnout and protect party workers from exhaustion. However, the intensity of Monday’s wind and rain brought these plans to a sudden halt.In assembly constituencies like Jorasanko, Chowringhee, Entally, Dum Dum, Kamarhati and Salt Lake, several street-corner meetings were abandoned midway amid heavy thunder and lightning and as heavy winds swept through lanes and streets.Mohammad Jamal, Trinamool president of Ward 39, said that while workers have been campaigning in the heat, evening sessions were preferred to conserve energy during the long campaign cycle. He added that voters were available after sunset, making Monday’s weather disruption a setback for the workers with respect to campaigning.In Kamarhati in the northern suburbs of Kolkata, several meetings had to be either cancelled or suspended midway. “We tried to resume after the rain stopped, but by then many workers had returned home,” said Amit Singh, a Trinamool Congress functionary.Gusty winds and rain — part of a series of pre-monsoon squalls that have already hit the city multiple times this month — ripped through stretches of Taratala Road, New Alipore and Chetla, where several torn flex banners and dislodged frames were seen hanging precariously on Tuesday morning.In the College Street area, several hoardings belonging to Santosh Pathak, the BJP candidate for Chowringhee, were blown away. Similarly, several cut-outs of leaders of different parties on Madan Mohan Burman Street off MG Road were damaged. On Elliot Road, big flex posters put up by workers of the Trinamool, Trinamool candidate from Chowringhee, were damaged.“The damage to the campaigning material has been extensive due to the squall. We will have to again put up hoardings and cut-outs in many pockets,” said a BJP worker in Chowringhee area.A Trinamool Congress functionary in Chetla said a large number of flexes were shredded overnight. “In some places, entire bamboo structures collapsed. We are now instructing workers to avoid oversized hoardings and use smaller, reinforced displays,” he said.Sashi Panja, the Trinamool Congress candidate in Shyampukur, said she has instructed her party workers to reinforce the hoardings and flexes with metal wires. “Nor’westers are unpredictable. We have asked our teams to secure banners with additional binding and avoid loose installations. Safety of pedestrians is also a priority,” she said.Civic officials said they have informally advised parties to ensure proper anchoring of structures to prevent accidents, especially in densely populated neighbourhoods.
