New Delhi: In a surprising event, a CPI-M candidate alleged that a TMC candidate swallowed ballot papers after he won the election by four votes in North 24 Parganas, reported ABP Ananda.
Habra's Rabindranath Majumdar claimed that Trinamool candidate Mahadev Mati ate the ballot papers to avoid defeat in the elections.
According to ABP Ananda, the TMC candidate, however, denied the allegations. He claimed that he won the polls by 46 votes, adding that the BJP was attempting to rig the vote count, so he bit their hand.
On the other hand, the CPM candidate alleged that after winning by four votes, he was informed that a recount was required before the result could be declared. Soon after, a Trinamool candidate arrived at the counting center and ate almost half of the ballot papers.
Notably, the counting of votes for the panchayat elections is still underway.
TMC looks set to sweep the violence-scarred rural polls keeping intact the mandate it won two years back during the assembly polls by taking a seemingly unassailable lead in results declared till now by the State Election Commission.
The ruling TMC has won in 18,606 gram panchayat seats out of the 27,985 seats declared, besides leading in 8,180 seats, according to the SEC as of 7.30 pm on Tuesday. Its nearest rival BJP has won 4,482 seats and is leading in 2,419 seats.
Notably, in all, elections are being held for 63,229 gram panchayat seats in West Bengal.
The elections were keenly contested as they were seen by all parties as an indicator of which way the wind will blow in the 2024 parliamentary elections from this part of the country.
The violence which rocked the panchayat polls held on Saturday has claimed at least 15 lives with 11 of them from the ruling TMC. Since elections were announced last month, the number of people who died in poll-related incidents has been 33, with the ruling party suffering 60 per cent of the deaths.
Allegations of vote tampering and violence by various parties forced the SEC to order re-polling in 696 seats on Monday, which passed more or less peacefully.
A voter turnout of 80.71 per cent was recorded on Saturday, whereas a vote percentage of 69.85 was recorded till 5 pm in 696 booths across West Bengal, where re-polling was held on Monday.