Bengal Panchayat Polls — 'False Voting Happened At Thousands Of Booths': Suvendu To Move HC 'With Evidence'

As re-polling continues at nearly 700 booths in Bengal for panchayat polls, BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari said that he is collecting evidence of voting malpractice at thousands of booth and will move HC.

The West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC) on Sunday announced to conduct repolling on nearly 700 booths for the panchayat elections where voting took place on Saturday. While voting is underway, BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari again slammed the SEC and accused the poll body of not giving importance to ‘thousands of booths where voting should have been conducted again’, as reported by PTI. 

Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said he is collecting evidence of alleged malpractice in several thousands of booths during the polling and will move the Calcutta High Court, stated the PTI report. 

"We had submitted a list of 6,000 booths to the SEC recommending repoll. Actually, false voting had taken place in 18,000 booths at the behest of the Trinamool Congress. We are collecting more evidence... video footage and everything," Adhikari told reporters, quoted PTI. 

The Bengal state poll body announced that repolling will be held in 696 booths across the state, where voting for the rural elections was declared void following reports of vote-tampering and violence. 

"Our list has apparently been overlooked by SEC Rajiva Sinha and we are not surprised. The list of booths announced by SEC last night was submitted by the TMC," Adhikari alleged. 

As per PTI, the Nandigram MLA claimed the pieces of evidence of malpractices that the BJP is collecting will prove the complicity of the TMC in the violence. He said, "An exhaustively detailed evidence, backed up with ample video footage, will be submitted to the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday (July 11)," the day of the counting of votes. 

He further alleged that the direction of CCTV cameras was changed in the booths where largescale rigging took place. 

To a question, Adhikari said, "The governor opened a peace room at Raj Bhavan. But I did not find the desired result. People want results from such moves", reported PTI.  

Notably, Governor CV Ananda Bose on June 18 opened the ‘peace room’ at Raj Bhavan “in view the numerous representations received from citizens on criminal intimidation in pre-poll Bengal.”