Kolkata: Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Thursday landed up at the Sakhawat Memorial School in South Kolkata, the counting centre for the Bhabanipur assembly segment, which houses the strong room for EVMs of the polls which were held on April 29, suspecting malpractice and tampering of the voting machines.
Banerjee reached the venue in the evening, ignoring torrential rains in the city, and was still seated inside till reports last received.
Kolkata Mayor and TMC candidate for the Kolkata Port segment, Firhad Hakim, too reached the spot but failed to meet the chief minister, who had already moved inside the strong room along with her election agent.
Lawyer Suryaneel Das, representing BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, questioned police officials deployed outside the strongroom over Mamata’s presence inside the facility for so long.
He said Mamata Banerjee’s presence in there is “unconstitutional”, news agency IANS reported.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) said there were no discrepancies inside Khudiram Anushilan Kendra in Kolkata, after Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidates staged a sit-in protest outside the facility.
“We have got the allegations checked and found no merit”, an Election Commission source told CNN-News18.
Reacting to the incident, West Bengal Circle Officer Manoj Kumar said the strong rooms inside the Khudiram facility had been closed and sealed in the presence of candidates and election agents.
“This is a sealed room. How will one open it if it has the double-locking system”? he said, responding to a query from a journalist.
“If you have doubts, go and check if you can enter the room”, he added.
The BJP hit back at the TMC over EVM tampering claims, alleging the party is trying to disseminate false narratives.
Tapas Roy, BJP candidate from Maniktala constituency, said, “One needs to prepare before their defeat. They said something is happening inside. I heard that the DEO (District Election Officer) took them in and showed them everything. So, there was a chaos here. When we reached here, TMC workers sloganeered and verbally abused us. We told the Kolkata Police officials that such things had never happened before at the strong room…”
“They (TMC) are preparing a false narrative and lying to the common people. This is wrong. We have spoken to the DEO. Everything is alright. We spoke with the DEO, other officers and also Police officers as to why they allowed a particular political party here. They should not have…We will also speak with the Commissioner…” he added, as quoted by news agency ANI.
Polling in West Bengal was held in two phases — April 23 and 29 — with counting of votes scheduled for May 4.
