West Bengal: Repoll begins at 15 booths in South 24 Parganas; EVM glitch briefly halts voting
WEST BENGAL, MAY 2 : Voting began on Saturday at 15 booths across two assembly constituencies in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district, a day after the Election Commission ordered a repoll following reports of electoral malpractices.
The repolls are being held in 11 polling stations in Magrahat Paschim and four in Diamond Harbour.
Voting began at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm, an EC official said.
“Polling was peaceful in the first hour. There has been no incident of violence or unrest. We have an adequate number of central forces in the two constituencies. Webcasting is also underway, and we are monitoring the proceedings,” the official said.
However, repolling in one of the polling booths was halted for over an hour after an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) reportedly malfunctioned. Electors had to wait in queue for a long time.
Expressing frustration over the incident, one voter asked the officials to clarify the situation or, instead, just shut the booth.
“If it is not happening (voting), close the booth, tell us and we will go home. Why are we standing here? Why are we here? It has been more than half an hour, they should close it, so that we can go home,” said the elector.
However, electors in another booth in Diamond Harbour said that the repolling in their booth was “fine”, while ackno
wledging that there were irregularities with polling on April 29.
After voting at booth number 117, in Diamond Harbour constituency, a voter told ANI, “It was fine earlier too, it is fine now as well. Such things (re-polling) keep happening. There is no problem.”
Another voter at the booth stated, “The machine was malfunctioning the last time. It is fine in the re-polling.”
Voting in these two assembly constituencies was held in the second phase of the state elections on April 29. The EC had said that the repoll order was based on reports received from returning officers and observers of the two constituencies and “material circumstances”.
In Magrahat Paschim, TMC’s Md Samim Ahamed Molla is pitted against BJP nominee Goursundar Ghosh, while Abdul Majid Halder of the Congress and ISF candidate Abdul Aziz Al Hassan are in the fray.
TMC candidate Panna Lal Halder is contesting against Dipak Kumar Halder of the BJP in the Diamond Harbour seat. Goutam Bhattacharya of the Congress and CPI(M)’s Samar Naiya are among other candidates.
Notably, the BJP has alleged widespread electoral malpractices in certain polling stations in both seats, which fall under the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency represented by Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
The Election Commission deputed its special observer, Subrata Gupta, to verify the allegations on the ground.
The poll body will decide on ordering a repoll in the Falta assembly constituency on Saturday.
The West Bengal assembly elections were held in two phases on April 23 and April 29 amid heavy security arrangements. Counting of votes will take place on May 4.
-PTI
