Women's safety top priority: Mother of R G Kar rape-murder victim

BJP's Panihati candidate Ratna Debnath, also the mother of RG Kar rape-murder victim, cast her vote in Sodepur in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district and said women's safety is her top priority. She exuded confidence that people would vote for a regime change and free West Bengal from ''the misrule of TMC''. ''The TMC failed to address the worsening law and order situation in the state. Only one arrest has been made in the RG Kar case. How did the accused get access to a secure place supposedly guarded by hospital security?'' she told reporters. Twenty months after the rape and murder of the young doctor inside Kolkata's state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital triggered nationwide outrage, the politics of that crime has caught up with Bengal's election battlefield. ''Apart from my daughter, hundreds of women have also been facing atrocities in West Bengal under the TMC rule. My priority is women's safety,'' she alleged. Debnath expressed confidence in winning the seat and said, ''We have to ensure that not a single vote is lost''. The BJP nominee alleged that the Mamata Banerjee government had tried to hush up the brutal rape and murder of her medic daughter. She has been fielded against Tirtankar Ghosh, the son of sitting TMC MLA Nirmal Ghosh, and CPIM's Kalatan Dasgupta. Voting was underway in 142 constituencies in the second and final phase of the West Bengal assembly elections, amid unprecedented security arrangements. The first phase of the assembly elections in 152 seats on April 23 had recorded a turnout of 93.19 per cent - the highest ever in the state. Counting of votes will take place on May 4.

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