Kolkata, June 1 (UNI) The BJP on Saturday said it would demand repolling in at least 230 of the 260 polling booths in the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal alleging irregularities in the live webcasting in the booths.
The booths were part of the Falta Assembly segment.
“We (BJP leadership) have decided to formally urge the Election Commission of India for repolling in 230 polling booths out of 260 under Falta in the Diamond Harbour seat as the webcasting system did not function as per the directive of the ECI norms in the polling booths”, state Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari told a media conference here.
Trinamool Congres General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of TMC supremo and state chief minister Mamata Banerjee and the party’s number two leader, is seeking re-election from the constituency he had won in 2014 and 2019.
He claimed that BJP’s Diamond Harbour candidate Abhijit Das alias Bobby was virtually detained so that he could not move for about four hours at Falta, allegedly by the state police personnel. Adhikari alleged Das could not visit various polling booths to meet his polling agents.
He also alleged that a large number of webcasting cameras installed in the polling booths malfunctioned in Diamond Harbour, Mathurapur, Joynagar and Jadavpur constituencies.
In an email to the Election Commission of India and the state’s Chief Electoral Officer, while the polling was on, he demanded their immediate intervention and a halt to the voting process till it was ensured that the cameras were functioning again.
He alleged large scale violence at Sandeshkhali, where he accused the state police of working for the ruling TMC.
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He also alleged that BJP’s candidate for the Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency Rekha Patra was “harassed by the state police, which “ill-directed” the Central Armed Force.
However, he lauded the Central Forces for being restrained despite being provoked and alleged the TMC was trying for a repeat of the incident in Sitalkuchi (Cooch Behar) where four people were killed in firing in the 2021 state assembly poll.
Adhikari said at least 100 people were injured in the “bloody violence in the last phase poll” of which some 50 were admitted to hospitals.
“One of them is fighting for his life in the hospital,” Adhikari said.
He also congratulated the people for coming out to vote despite obstructions in all the roads to the polling booth.
