Kolkata: Chaos erupted outside the vote-counting facility in West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Bhabanipur assembly constituency a day before results, as TMC supporters accused authorities of permitting two vehicles adorned with BJP flags into the EVM storage compound, PTI reported.
The episode unfolded after Banerjee staged a prolonged four-hour dharna in front of the Sakhawat Memorial Girls School counting centre on Thursday evening, raising concerns over unauthorized individuals accessing the strongroom.
With the polling concluded, the power struggle in West Bengal has turned into a tense standoff between the ruling TMC and BJP. Party cadres and officials from both sides maintain round-the-clock watch over strongrooms statewide, safeguarding the sealed electoral verdicts.
Even as Banerjee voiced assurance of a “landslide victory,” she has persistently flagged fears of “counting malpractice and EVM tampering ahead of the day of results.”
Sunday morning saw TMC volunteers, positioned 100 metres from the centre, spot two BJP-flagged cars entering the grounds and approaching the strongroom.
“The CAPF personnel at the spot are not allowing any vehicle or person to enter the premises of the counting centre without valid identity proof. Then how come this car, which we have not seen in the past few days, was allowed entry? Once we protested, the central forces asked us to move 100 metres away,” a TMC activist said.
TMC alleged that although on-site police vowed to clear the vehicle, it stayed parked for a while.
A top Election Commission officer explained the car was traversing Harish Mukherjee Road; after scrutiny by security and police, it departed as no irregularities surfaced.
Thursday night brought high-stakes drama at two counting centres, including Sakhawat Memorial Girls School, where TMC alleged lack of transparency and potential foul play in strongrooms holding sealed assembly poll EVMs that wrapped on April 29.
TMC figures and candidates Sashi Panja and Kunal Ghosh staged a sit-in near Khudiram Anushilan Kendra, decrying unauthorized actions inside the strongroom without TMC agents present.
In Howrah, TMC objected to public works department repairs next to a strongroom, prompting the EC to halt the activity temporarily.
Saturday saw the TMC lodge a formal grievance with the poll body, charging illicit sorting of postal ballot envelopes at Khudiram Anushilan Kendra’s EVM strongroom.
Similar unrest unfolded on Saturday outside strongrooms at Asansol College in Paschim Bardhaman and Barasat Government College in North 24 Parganas, with TMC protests claiming CCTV feeds went dark for minutes.
The EC rejected every claim, insisting surveillance cameras operated without interruption.
BJP spokesperson Sajal Ghosh quipped to media that Bengal’s public found it “hilarious” how the TMC, “which used to win elections through unfair means and strongarm tactics” were now peddling “frivolous charges.”
“Are they scared of losing?” he posed.
