The Communist Party of India (Marxist) asked the Election Commission to order repoll in 614 booths across six of the nine constituencies in West Bengal which went to the polls on Wednesday.
Polit Bureau members Sitaram Yechury and S. Ramachandran Pillai submitted a petition to the Commission in the evening, detailing the polling booths where, according to them, Trinamool Congress workers engaged in massive rigging after driving out CPI(M) polling agents.
The six constituencies are Howrah, Uluberia, Arambagh, Bardhaman Purba, Bardhaman-Durgapur and Bolpur. Of these, Arambagh, Bardhaman Purba, Bardhaman-Durgapur and Bolpur – are currently held by the CPI(M). Though central forces were made available to the State government, they were not deployed at the polling booths. Also, the technical requirements prescribed by the EC for every booth were not followed, the party said.
As a case in point, the party flagged the fact that only 324 of the 17,330 booths had some form of video surveillance. “If this is not checked and deterrent action taken, violence will be on a larger scale in the next two phases of polls in the State,’’ a CPI(M) complaint stated.
