Kolkata: Hours after warning about a plan to change the Electronic Voting Machines before the counting of votes to ensure an edge for the Bharatiya Janata Party, West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo, Mamata Banerjee, visited a 'strongroom' being used to store the machines even as two candidates of her party led a protest outside another.
Two Trinamool Congress candidates, Kunal Ghosh and Shashi Panja, first started the sit-in protest in front of the strongroom at Khudiram Anushilan Kendra in Kolkata in the evening, alleging suspicious movement inside the place where the EVMs were stored after the polling on April 23. They also alleged that the Election Commission's officials managing the strongroom asked the TMC workers to leave at 3:30 p.m. and then sent out emails informing that the strongroom would be reopened at 4:00 p.m. They also alleged irregularities in processing postal ballots.
Ghosh and Panja, the TMC candidates in Beleghata and Shyampukur, respectively, alleged that when they had reached the strongroom after learning about the procedural lapses by the officials, they had not been allowed to enter.
Mamata too visited the strongroom at Sakhawat Memorial High School in Bhabanipur - her own constituency, where the BJP fielded her aide-turned-adversary Suvendu Adhikari to take on her.
"The ballot papers are being moved inside the strongroom. But the Chief Electoral Officer is saying nothing is happening. If postal ballots are being processed, where did they come from? If an email was sent, why were we not informed?" asked Ghosh.
"The strongroom is extremely sensitive. If it is opened, all political parties must be informed. Why was no one informed?" questioned Panja.
The final phase of polling in West Bengal covered 142 of the 294 constituencies of the state. The first phase of voting in 152 constituencies had taken place on April 23.
The votes will be counted on May 4.
Mamata sticks to her claim about winning 226 seats, despite edge for BJP in exit pollThe protests started hours after Mamata posted a video message on X and asked the TMC workers to be vigilant and foil any plan to change the EVMs or manipulate the counting of votes. "You must guard the counting centres. If needed, I will also go and guard my area. Candidates must guard themselves. Stay awake. If I can do it, so can you," she urged the party workers, adding, "There is a plan to change the machines while transporting EVMs. Do not take this lightly."
"This is the murder of democracy in broad daylight. CCTV footage has exposed how @BJP4India, in active collusion with the @ECISVEEP, is opening ballot boxes without the presence of any relevant party stakeholders. This is gross electoral fraud being committed openly with the full knowledge and protection of the Election Commission," the TMC stated, releasing video footage, purportedly showing "unknown people" inside the strongroom at the Khudiram Anushilan Kendra in Kolkata.
"They have tried every dirty trick, name deletion, voter intimidation, Central Force terror, cash flooding, and failed miserably. Now, in sheer desperation, they have stooped to tampering with EVMs. But Bengal is not Maharashtra, Delhi, or Bihar. We will not sit silently and watch them loot our democracy."