Repolling ordered in two West Bengal booths

KOLKATA: EC on Sunday ordered a repoll in two booths in Bengal, one in Deganga under Barasat Lok Sabha constituency and the other in Kakdwip under Mathurapur constituency. The repoll will be conducted from 7am to 6pm on June 3.The panel said the decision was taken based on reports from poll officials and after taking “all material circumstances on record”.The EC order came in the backdrop of Bengal BJP on Sunday demanding a repoll in nearly 420 booths in Diamond Harbour and 11 booths in Mathurapur LS constituencies. The party alleged a number of malpractices had taken place and demanded a repoll in all 256 booths in Falta.BJP’s Diamond Harbour candidate, Abhijit Das, claimed: “They had pasted tapes on EVMs to block BJP’s name and button, pasted symbols on the walls, intentionally turned CCTV cameras in the wrong direction.” EC, however, did not heed the allegations. No repoll was ordered at any booth in Diamond Harbour constituency.Former TMC Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh said BJP was making bogus claims because it “lacked organisational capacity” and failed to depute polling agents.Subhasis Chakraborty, TMC’s Diamond Harbour president and chairman of Mathurapur election committee, said: “BJP took a month to select a candidate for Diamond Harbour and even more time to arrange agents in each of the nearly 2,000 booths. Despite that, they could not man each booth. They lost the vote and need to say something as a face-saver”