WB Panchayat Polls: BJP MP alleges ballot rigging, demands re-polling

Alleging ballot rigging in the West Bengal panchayat polls which is marred by violence, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Khagen Murmu called for re-polling in Bengal, claiming that presiding officers and election staff were engaged in proxy voting in favour of the Trinamool Congress (TMC).

He further alleged that ballot boxes are still missing, adding that TMC is attempting to capture the panchayats like they captured the government.

"There is violence everywhere post polls. Trinamool Congress is responsible for this, they are trying to capture the booths. We see this in every election and the same is being repeated in this panchayat elections also. When we came to see the strong rooms, the district legislator, a representative of the Zilla Parishad was also there, and a party worker from Congress was also there with us. We found that the ballot boxes are missing, and they are still missing. The presiding officers and other staff are all involved in this," he said.

He further termed the elections in West Bengal as a "farce" as TMC is attempting to capture every booth.

"These elections are a farce and it is an attempt by TMC to capture the booths and panchayats. They captured the government like that before. So we strongly demand re-polling in Bengal", he added.

Murmu also criticized the police administration and general administration for allegedly supporting the TMC's efforts.

"How are they doing it? The police administration and general administration here are supporting them (TMC), they are helping them in their attempts to capture the booths. All this has happened in the name of elections which is bogus. So we don't accept this. We demand re-polls", he said.

In protest, the MP, along with other BJP leaders, staged a sit-in demonstration in front of a strong room in Gazole, demanding re-polls in the state.

A total of 10 people were killed and several injured in violence reported across the state during the Panchayat poll.

The three-tier panchayat elections in 20 out of 30 districts were marked by widespread violence, looting of ballots papers and rigging. The 7 new districts which were included last year include - Sunderban, Ichhemati, Ranaghat, Bishnupur, Jangipur, Behrampur and one more district will be named in Basirhat.

There were reports of booth capturing, damaging of ballot boxes and assault of presiding officers from several districts such as Murshidabad, Cooch Behar, Malda, South 24 Parganas, North Dinajpur and Nadia.

Earlier on Saturday, West Bengal Pradesh Congress President Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that the TMC's incoherence with the police administration has unleashed a reign of terror in an unprecedented way.

"The ruling party's incoherence with the police administrations...has unleashed a reign of terror in an unprecedented way, which has taken a toll on 26 people, and hundreds of people who are fatally injured have been admitted to the hospital already. The political and electoral environment in Bengal has been violent...It is a travesty of panchayat elections and virtually it is an example of electoral depredations...," said Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary.

However, the state election commission came under fire following parties of the state alleged booth capturing and rigging across the state.

The Border Security Force (BSF) also came down heavily on the poll body of the state and said that despite repeated requests from the Border Security Force (BSF) on sensitive polling booths, the West Bengal State Election Commission didn't provide any information on such booths to the central security forces.

SS Guleria, DIG BSF said that BSF has written several letters to the state election commission seeking information on sensitive polling booths but no information was provided except on June 7, when they were informed of just the numbers of such booths but nothing about their location or any other information.

He added that the deployment of BSF was at the behest of local administration.

"There were 59,000 troops of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and state armed police arrived from 25 states for election duty but they were not adequately utilised on sensitive polling booths," he said.

Polling began at 7 am amid tight security in the state in 73,887 seats in rural areas of West Bengal with 5.67 crore people deciding the fate of around 2.06 lakh candidates.The counting will take place on July 11.