West Bengal Panchayat Election 2023: West Bengal State Election Commissioner (SEC) Rajeev Sinha on Saturday promised to look into complaints of vote tampering and take a decision on a possible repoll after receiving reports from observers and returning officers. Sinha said the maximum number of complaints of incidents of violence during the day’s polling came from four districts and all of them would be taken into account while reviewing the election process. The CEC, which has faced flak from various political parties, said a decision on re-polling would be taken on Sunday when observers and returning officers scrutinize and review the polling process.
1,300 complaints received from Barasat
Sinha told ‘PTI-Bhasha’, “I am getting information (of violence and clashes) since last night. Calls regarding these incidents were made directly to me and to the control room phone numbers. On Saturday, maximum number of such incidents were reported from three-four districts like North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas and Murshidabad district.” Sinha said, SEC received 1,300 complaints from Barasat, including incidents of miscreants running away with ballot boxes. . He said, “Detailed investigation will be done tomorrow. Re-polling will be held at those booths where maximum violence took place and where polling could not take place or was stopped.
Returning Officer will check the polling process
He said, “That is why the day after polling is kept for scrutiny. Supervisors and Returning Officers will check the polling process. Only then we will be able to understand in how many places there is a need to order re-polling.” Asked whether Saturday’s polling was peaceful or not, Sinha said, “I won’t be able to say anything until we get the full report on it.” Let the voting be over. Law and order is the subject of the state police. The information we receive is forwarded through the SEC.” He said that immediately after the SEC received any information about any untoward incident in connection with the polling held on Saturday, the District Magistrate, Superintendent of Police and CAP were informed.
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Talking about the death toll, Sinha said officially three people died during Saturday’s polling. “According to the direct information we have received, only three people have died,” he said. However, according to police officials, various incidents of violence in West Bengal during the three-tier panchayat polls on Saturday involved the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) Twelve people, including eight from the TMC) and one each from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), the Congress and the Indian Secular Front (ISF), were killed.
Meanwhile, an alleged BJP worker named Manish Prasad was arrested after he entered the SEC office. He said he wanted to throw ink at Sinha for his alleged failure to control the violence in Saturday’s polling process. Polling began at 7 am in 73,887 seats in rural areas of the state and 5.67 crore people decided the fate of nearly 2.06 lakh candidates. Officials said that till 5 pm, 66.28 percent polling was recorded.
