Kolkata. A day before the counting of votes in West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Bhawanipur assembly constituency, there was a ruckus on Sunday with Trinamool Congress workers alleging that two cars with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) flags were allowed to enter the premises where electronic voting machines (EVMs) are kept. This incident has happened at a time when Mamata Banerjee had staged a protest for four hours on Thursday night in front of the same counting center located at Sakhawat Memorial Girls School.
Banerjee had alleged entry of unauthorized people into the strongroom. After the end of voting, the tussle for power in West Bengal has now turned into a battle of psychological pressure between Trinamool and BJP. Workers and leaders of both the parties are keeping a close watch on the security of the strongrooms across the state where the electoral fate of the candidates is sealed. Even though Banerjee has expressed confidence of a “huge victory”, she has repeatedly expressed apprehension of “disruptions in vote counting and tampering with EVMs”.
Trinamool workers, camping 100 meters away from the counting centre, alleged on Sunday morning that two cars with BJP flags entered the premises and went till near the strongroom. A Trinamool worker said, “The Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel deployed at the spot are not allowing any vehicle or person without valid identity card to enter the counting center premises. In such a situation, how did this car, which we have not seen for the last few days, get entry? When we protested, the central forces asked us to retreat 100 metres.
Trinamool Congress claimed that the police personnel deployed there had assured to remove the vehicle from the spot but it remained standing there for some time. A senior Election Commission official said the car was passing through Harish Mukherjee Road and was allowed to pass after being checked by security forces and police and nothing objectionable was found in it.
After Mamata Banerjee appealed to Trinamool Congress leaders, workers and polling agents to monitor the EVM strongroom round the clock, party candidates Kunal Ghosh and Shashi Panja on Thursday staged a sit-in at the Khudiram Anushilan Center alleging irregular activities while the Election Commission rejected their allegations. In Howrah, Trinamool protested against the repair work being done by the Public Works Department at the place adjacent to the strongroom, after which the Election Commission temporarily stopped the work.
The ruling party on Saturday lodged a complaint with the Election Commission alleging unauthorized sorting of envelopes of postal ballots in the EVM strongroom at Khudiram Anushilan Kendra. On Saturday, similar scenes were seen outside the strongrooms of Asansol College in West Bardhaman district and Barasat Government College in North 24 Parganas district, where Trinamool workers protested alleging that the CCTV cameras remained switched off for several minutes.
The Election Commission rejected all the allegations and said that the surveillance cameras were working continuously. BJP spokesperson Sajal Ghosh told reporters that the people of Bengal are finding it “ridiculous” that Trinamool, which “kept winning elections through unfair means and forceful tactics”, is now making various “baseless allegations”. He asked, “Are they afraid of losing?”
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