The Mamta Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, which is hoping to come to power in West Bengal for a third consecutive term, on Saturday alleged discrepancy in poll turnout and malfunctioning of EVMs as voting began for 30 of 294 assembly seats this morning.
A letter was written by MP Derek O’Brien to the Election Commission and a party delegation met the poll panel in the afternoon, a news agency reported.
In a tweet, Mamata Banerjee’s party shared voting turnout figures from the East Medinipur district and asked: “What is happening @ECISVEEP?! Could you explain how voting percentage drastically reduced to half within a gap of just 5 minutes?! Shocking! @CEOWestBengal, please look into this urgently!”
In another post, the party talked about claims that people were not able to vote for Trinamool.
“Shocking claim by voters which must be immediately looked into by @ECISVEEP and @CEOWestBengal. Many voters in the Kanthi Dakshin assembly seat allege that they voted for TMC but VVPAT showed them the BJP symbol. THIS IS SERIOUS! THIS IS UNPARDONABLE!”
After a meeting with the Chief Electoral Officer, Trinamool leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay told reporters that some concerns were shared. “The BJP had submitted a memorandum requesting to change the system of appointing booth agents wherein he must be a voter of the concerned booth and allow anybody at any booth.”
In the 2016 state election, the Trinamool had claimed 26 of these 30 seats.
This time, the state is witnessing a triangular contest between Mamata Banerjee’s party, the BJP and the Congress-Left alliance.
Surjitt Sahani
