Kolkata: The State Election Commission (SEC) has ruled out repolling in any of the booths and rejected the opposition claim of massive rigging and false voting in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) election, which was held on Sunday amid reports of bombings in some polling booths across the city.
Counting of votes will be held on Tuesday for all the 144 wards for which the polling was held, official sources said on Monday.
The turnout of voters till 5 pm was reported at 64 per cent across 4,959 polling stations, where altogether 453 complaints were lodged with the West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC).
The city police also arrested 210 people, accused of creating violence during the election.
Reports of bomb charges came from three places, including from a polling station at a school near Sealdah station where three men were injured. One of them was admitted to a city hospital.
Three people were wounded after country-made bombs were hurled outside Taki Boys’ School in the Sealdah area.
Both the TMC and Congress held each other responsible for the violence.
Police also said unidentified miscreants hurled a crude bomb in the Beleghata area.
A third such incident happened outside a booth from the Khanna area in north Kolkata.
The latest report said the BJP and CPI(M) have filed two writ petitions separately in Calcutta High Court, seeking its directive on the alleged acts of violence and malpractice in the KMC elections.
One of the writs was filed by CPI(M) candidate Deblina Sarkar and the court granted it.
The hearing is slated for December 23. Ms Sarkar contested from Ward No 22.
The opposition parties -the BJP, CPI(M) and Congress – alleged that their polling agents were shoved out of the booths and even many of their candidates were assaulted while protesting booth capturing and rigging resorted by the ruling TMC activists.
The main opposition BJP, which also staged protest demonstrations at different areas in the city and districts alleging vote was looted by the ruling Trinamool Congress.
Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly Suvendu Adhikari had also demanded repolling all the 144 wards with the SEC.
He also submitted a memorandum with Governor Jagdeep Dhankar in relation to poll violence “resorted to by the ruling party” with the help of the state administration.
Adhikari also demanded forensic examination by a central lab of all the 6000 CCTVs footage to know exactly what happened in the polling stations.
