West Bengal: Voting begins at 15 booths of two assembly seats after EC orders repoll

Kolkata: Voting began on Saturday at 15 booths in two assembly constituencies in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district, where the Election Commission ordered repolls a day ago, following reports of electoral malpractices, an official said.

The repolls were ordered in 11 polling stations of Magrahat Paschim assembly constituency and four in Diamond Harbour.

Voting began at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm, the official said.

Polling in these two assembly constituencies was held in the second phase of the state elections on April 29.

Repoll order after reports received from returning officers

The repoll order was based on reports received from returning officers and observers of the two constituencies and “material circumstances”, the Election Commission official said.

The BJP had alleged rampant electoral malpractices in certain polling stations of both the assembly seats under the Dimanod Harbour Lok Sabha constituency, which is represented by TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

The EC had deputed its special observer, Subrata Gupta, to fact-check the allegations from the ground.

Meanwhile, the EC will decide on repolling in the Falta assembly constituency on Saturday.

Two phase elections in Bengal

The West Bengal assembly elections were held in two phases – April 23 and April 29, amid unprecedented security arrangements.

Counting of votes will take place on May 4.

Mamata, Abhishek to hold virtual meeting with all counting agents of TMC

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew and TMC’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee will hold a virtual meeting with all counting agents of the party on Saturday afternoon, two days ahead of the counting of votes polled in the assembly elections, a senior party leader said.

The meeting, scheduled for 4 pm, will be attended by the counting agents from the 291 Assembly constituencies, where the ruling party fielded its candidates.

The Anit Thapa-led Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) contested the remaining three seats in the Darjeeling hills.

At the virtual meeting, the leaders are expected to brief the counting agents about their duties to ensure there are no lapses during the counting process on May 4.

“The most important instruction to the agents would be to not leave the counting centres till the calculations are officially over and winning certificates handed over to the victors,” the senior TMC leader, not wishing to be named, said.

“All unusual activities inside counting centres, like the sudden power cut at the Nandigram counting centre in 2021, must be immediately reported to the party’s top brass,” he said.

In the eventuality of such a development, the leader said that the counting agents will have to await instructions from the top leaders on their course of action.

The senior TMC leader said virtual interactions had been a regular feature during the revision of electoral rolls, with Abhishek Banerjee holding multiple meetings with booth-level agents between November and February.

However, such meetings were not held by either Abhishek Banerjee or Mamata Banerjee after the announcement of the state polls in March, but by leaders like Mahua Moitra.

As the countdown for the poll results begins, the ruling party’s leadership is focusing on tightening coordination among its agents at the counting centres.

The Saturday briefing by the duo will cover key aspects of the counting process, including the number of rounds and protocols to be followed once the electronic voting machines (EVMs) are brought out of strong rooms and unsealed, the senior TMC leader said.

The counting agents will also be asked to be mobile-savvy as the Election Commission has introduced QR codes as part of security measures during counting this time, he said.

Despite expressing her confidence of a “landslide victory”, Mamata Banerjee has repeatedly aired her apprehensions of “counting malpractice and EVM tampering ahead of the day of results”.

She has urged party workers to remain extra vigilant around the strongrooms housed inside the counting centres, even as West Bengal’s Chief Electoral Officer, Manoj Agarwal, has asserted that there was no scope for wrongdoing at the counting centres.

Two counting centres in Kolkata witnessed high drama late on Thursday evening after TMC leaders alleged a lack of transparency and possible malpractice at the strongrooms housing sealed EVMs of the assembly polls, which concluded on April 29.

Mamata Banerjee herself landed up at the Sakhawat Memorial School counting centre and stayed put there for about four hours.

TMC leaders and candidates Sashi Panja and Kunal Ghosh held a sit-in outside the Khudiram Anushilan Kendra counting centre on Thursday evening, alleging unauthorised activities inside the strongroom amid the absence of TMC agents.

Notably, Mamata Banerjee on Friday evening held an hours-long closed-door meeting with Abhishek Banerjee at her south Kolkata residence, a day before the virtual meeting with counting agents fine-tuning their party’s counting day strategy, in the run up to the results to be declared on May 4.