West Bengal witnessed high drama on Thursday night after the Trinamool Congress (TMC) alleged ballot tampering in Kolkata, just hours after party supremo Mamata Banerjee called on workers to “stay up all night and guard the EVM strongrooms”.
Mamata Banerjee, who is the sitting chief minister of the state, personally came down to various strong rooms after TMC candidates Kunal Ghosh and Shashi Panja did a dharna after alleging that the strong rooms were being opened by the poll body with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), without the presence of “relevant stakeholders”.
However, the West Bengal chief electoral officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal countered Banerjee by citing the rulebook, stating that Mamata Banerjee cannot access any of the strong rooms outside her own constituency.
The Election Commission officials rejected the TMC allegations and said the main strong rooms are safely secured and locked, and that ballot segregation was taking place in the strong rooms' corridors from 4 pm.
Mamata Banerjee on Thursday evening had reached the Bhabanipur Assembly segment counting centre, which houses the strong room for EVMs used in the April 29 polling, citing suspicion of tampering with the machines.
She warned against any attempt to tamper with the counting process, hours after she visited an EVM strong room in Bhabanipur, alleging possible malpractice.
The BJP attacked the TMC, accusing them of creating a “false narrative” and said that the TMC has conceded its defeat.
