West Bengal: Counting Underway For Falta Assembly Repoll Amid Tight Security

The Election Commission had ordered fresh polling in all 285 booths following allegations of EVM tampering and irregularities during the April 29 election.

The re-election to the Falta assembly seat, in South 24 Parganas district, West Bengal was held on May 21.

Source : PTI

Kolkata, May 24 (PTI) Counting of votes for the repoll to the Falta Assembly constituency in West Bengal began at 8 am on Sunday, amid tight security, an Election Commission official said.

The repoll in all 285 booths of the constituency was conducted on May 21 after voting in the seat in South 24 Parganas district in the second phase of the Assembly elections on April 29 was countermanded following allegations of EVM tampering and irregularities.

"The counting is progressing peacefully. Adequate security arrangements have been made at the counting centre," a poll panel official said.

The repoll saw more than 87 per cent of the 2.36 lakh electors turning up to vote. The Election Commission had doubled security arrangements for the repoll, deploying around 35 companies of central forces across the constituency to ensure the smooth conduct of voting.

Although officially six candidates are in the fray for the seat, Trinamool Congress nominee Jahangir Khan, a couple of days before the repoll, announced that he would not contest, a decision the party described as his personal.

Tension ran high in the constituency since the April 29 polling, when complaints emerged from multiple booths alleging that perfume-like substances and adhesive tapes had been applied to EVMs.

Subsequent scrutiny also revealed alleged attempts to tamper with footage captured by web cameras installed at several polling stations, raising questions over the role of booth-level officers, presiding officers, polling personnel and election observers.

Following the findings, the EC had ordered repolling in all booths. 

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)