Counting of votes in civic bodies’ polls today

TMC likely to retain the Municipalities and the Municipal Corporations.

April 28, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 07:47 am IST - KOLKATA:

Presiding officers checking the EVMs before they are transported to polling booth for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation elections. File photo: Sushanta Patranabish

Presiding officers checking the EVMs before they are transported to polling booth for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation elections. File photo: Sushanta Patranabish

Counting of votes in 91 municipal bodies and Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will commence from 8 a.m. on Tuesday and a clear trend will emerge only within first couple of hours. While two-tier armed forces would be deployed outside the counting centres, three companies of Central forces would also be manning the counting centres. The centres will be under video surveillance and CCTVs have been installed at the centres. State Election Commissioner S. R. Upadhaya said that video streaming would be monitored at the divisional level in the districts.

According to booth-specific polls on basis of voters’ opinion, beamed by many television channels, Trinamool Congress will not only retain the Municipalities and the Municipal Corporations, including Kolkata, but may increase its tally.

However, the exit polls often analyse the samples wrongly.

The two phase polling on April 18 and 25 was marred by extensive violence. The Opposition called it “low intensity violence aimed to facilitate large scale rigging” and blamed the State Election Commission (SEC) for its “pusillanimous approach.”

While the Commission denied such allegations, at one point Mr Upadhaya said that the election was “not ideal.” However, the TMC chief Mamata Banerjee said that Kolkata has never witnessed “such a peaceful polling.”

BJP’s debacle

Irrespective of malpractices, even the TMC’s opponents concluded that the party is heading for a thumping majority on Tuesday. The Bharatiya Janata Party which was expected to perform well in the municipal polls, only a few months back, could hardly provide any resistance on ground. While the BJP’s possible debacle needs analysis, the ordinary supporters are heartbroken. They accept that the party lost the script over last couple of months. Rather, the Left Front may improve marginally, depending on multiple micro-local factors, including the nature of locality level resistance to electoral malpractices of the TMC.

Meanwhile, re-polling was conducted in 36 booths in five districts on Monday.

“The total polling percentage of re-polls at 36 booths across five districts was 64 per cent till 3 p.m. The percentage is likely to increase by about two per cent after all the calculations are made,” Mr. Upadhaya told media persons.

Asked about the controversial polling percentage at some booths for which presiding officers were issued show cause notices, Mr. Upadhaya said the numbers were a “human” and “calculation error” by the presiding officer.

Refusing to divulge details about his communication with Bengal Governor Keshari Natha Triapthi about the civic polls, Mr. Upadhaya said a report would be duly sent to Mr. Tripathi based on his enquiries. He remained tight lipped when asked if the civic polls could be termed as controversial.

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