Terming the Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls conducted here on Saturday as “not ideal”, West Bengal State Election Commissioner S. R. Upadhaya said that the poll panel had received several complaints of violence. Voter turnout was about 60 per cent till 3 p.m., the official time when the polling ended, he said.
‘Fake voters’
“We received about 60 complaints overall. We received about 15-20 complaints from the Bharatiya Janata Party, the highest from any political party. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) complained of violence in the Jadavpur and Patuli areas of the city. There were several complaints of fake voters, booth capturing, booth jamming and proxy votes. Several presiding officers were threatened or forcibly removed from polling booths. There were about seven to eight complaints of malfunctioning of Electronic Voting Machines. One web-based surveillance camera was damaged,” Mr. Upadhaya told journalists.
Although he refused to make any direct reference to reports of violence in the city, he said he had received “complaints of sporadic violence”.
Demand for re-polling
Stating that there were several demands for re-polling, including some from the BJP, Mr. Upadhaya said the final decision whether re-polling would be required, would be taken on Sunday.
“We are yet to make a statistics-based analysis report. Voters complained of missing names in the electoral list and that polling officers were not checking EPIC cards of some voters. We tried to ensure that the polls were peaceful, free and fair,” he said.
Although there were several instances of gunshots being fired, Mr. Upadhaya said the poll panel had not received any such complaints.
