Over 87 per cent turnout was recorded an hour before the close of voting, in the repolls in 15 booths of two assembly constituencies in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district on Saturday, an official said.
Voting was underway more or less peacefully at 11 polling stations of Magrahat Paschim assembly constituency and four in Diamond Harbour, where the EC ordered a repoll a day ago, following reports of electoral malpractices.
However, at booth number 179 at Chanda Primary School of Diamond Harbour seat, the Trinamool Congress alleged that a specially abled voter and his mother were harassed by central forces. The alleged incident sparked protests by party workers and locals.
Of the newly deployed observers, 165 are counting and 77 are police
Polling was otherwise peaceful across 15 booths in the area, he added. The repoll order was based on reports received from returning officers of the two constituencies and “material circumstances”, an EC official said.
SC denies TMC’s plea
The Supreme Court on Saturday said no further order was necessary on the TMC’s plea challenging the Calcutta High Court’s dismissal of its petition against an Election Commission circular on the deployment of central government personnel for vote counting in West Bengal.
Justice PS Narasimha
A special bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Joymalya Bagchi said the Election Commission can choose the counting personnel, and its April 13 circular, which provides for deployment of state government employees as well, cannot be said to be incorrect.
EC deploys 242 more observers
Ahead of the counting of votes in West Bengal scheduled for Monday, the Election Commission on Saturday deployed an additional 165 counting observers and 77 police observers in the state, adding to the 294 such observers already deployed. “The additional counting observers and police observers have been deployed to ensure that the counting proceedings are conducted in a secure, peaceful, intimidation-free and transparent environment,” the EC said. The West Bengal polls were held in two phases amid unprecedented security arrangements.
This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever