Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], May 1 : Political temperature rose again in Kolkata, a day after the conclusion of second and final phase of polling for assembly polls as Trinamool Congress alleged "opening of ballot boxes without the presence of any relevant party stakeholders" and party leaders staged a dharna.
Elections Commission officials denied Trinamool Congress allegations and BJP leaders accused the ruling party in the state of spreading rumours. Trinamool Congress leaders later ended the dharnaoutside Netaji Indoor Stadium.
TMC leader Kunal Ghosh called the incident "a mistake of EC" and said that it was decided that the security outside the strong room will be tightened, nobody will break open the seal or enter without informing officialy.
"What happened today is a mistake of the EC. It was decided that after today, nobody will break open the seal of strong room and go inside without informing officially. This was the first decision. What happened today was wrong. More CCTV cameras are needed there, they have agreed. It should reflect on screen. We have told them about our observations. The dharna has been called off...Our team will monitor everything. This is our right and we will do everything legally. We do not intent to do anything illegally," he said.
"We opposed when they were doing something illegal. We have one question, they have broken open the seal of strong room without intimating and we were opposing it, why is the BJP so troubled? This means that had malicious intentions," Ghosh told media persons.
BJP candidate from Maniktala constituency, Tapas Roy, accused TMC of creating a "false narrative." He said he arrived near the strong room after receiving the news of the dharna by the TMC.
Countering the TMC's allegation that the BJP created a ruckus amid a peaceful protest, Roy said that the TMC workers "sloganeered and verbally abused us."
Roy said that he spoke with the District Electoral Officer (DEO), the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar and the police personnel over the incident, questioning why the members of a political party were allowed.
"This was the strong room. We heard in the news that a leader is coming here, and two TMC candidates are sitting on a dharna here. They had gone in and given a byte. This had never happened before. Hearing this, candidate Santosh Pathak and I came here. We were then joined by Purnima Chakraborty, Vijay Ojha and Ritesh Tiwari. One needs to prepare before their defeat. They said something is happening inside. I heard that the DEO (District Election Officer) took them in and showed them everything. So, there was a chaos here. When we reached here, TMC workers sloganeered and verbally abused us," he said.
"We told the Kolkata Police officials that such things had never happened before at the strong room...They (TMC) are preparing a false narrative and lying to the common people. This is wrong. We have spoken to the DEO. Everything is alright. We spoke with the DEO, other officers and also Police officers as to why they allowed a particular political party here. They should not have...We will also speak with the Commissioner," he added.
State BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya alleged that the TMC has conceded its defeat.
"TMC has admitted defeat before their defeat. Mamata Banerjee knows TMC's situation. The Govt is going out of power but with this, the party will also finish off within a few months. So, this is the flickering of flame before being extinguished. How long will the people of West Bengal see this drama? This will have no impact," he said.
"Shashi Panja has lost the polls. Kunal Ghosh is a journalist and he, too, knows what the result will be," he added.
Election Commission officials on rejected allegations of Trinamool Congress about "opening of ballot boxes without the presence of any relevant party stakeholders" and said the main strong rooms are safely secured and locked and segregation of the ballot was taking place in the corridor of strong rooms containing polled premise from 4pm.
In an apparent reference to the video posted by Trinamool Congress on its X handle, the officials said that all strong rooms containing polled EVMs are safely secured and sealed. They noted that there was routine segregation of postal ballots.
"With reference to video being circulated on social media handles: there are 7 AC strong rooms inside the Kgudiram Anushilan Kendra; they all have been duly closed and sealed in the presence of Candidates/Election agents and General Observer after completion of poll yesterday. Last Strong room was closed in the morning around 5.15am," an Election Commission official said.
"All strong rooms containing polled EVMs are safely secured and sealed. There is another strong room in the same premise for Postal ballot wherein we have kept AC wise polled ballots as done by different polling personnel and ETBPS (Electronic Transmitted Postal Ballot System)," the official added.
Officials said that the poll panel had notified all observers, ROs and requested ROs to inform their candidates and agents about this.
"ROs informed the political parties by mail. The segregation of the ballot was taking place in the corridor of strong rooms containing polled premise from 4pm. The main strong rooms are safely secured and locked. The same was duly shown to Shashi Panja, Kunal Ghosh and Kali from BJP," the official said.
The controversy erupted after the TMC alleged that the BJP "in active collusion" with the Election Commission "is opening ballot boxes without the presence of any relevant party stakeholders" and said "this is the murder of democracy in broad daylight."
In a post on X, the party also shared a video, stating that "opening of ballot boxes" is gross electoral fraud.
"ALARMING This is the murder of democracy in broad daylight. CCTV footage has exposed how @BJP4India, in active collusion with the @ECISVEEP, is opening ballot boxes without the presence of any relevant party stakeholders. This is gross electoral fraud being committed openly with the full knowledge and protection of the Election Commission," the Trinamool Congress said.
TMC accused the BJP of trying "every dirty trick" to defeat it in assembly polls and "stooping to tampering with EVMs" in desperation.
Shashi Panja and Kunal Ghosh held the dharna.
"You can watch the livestreaming and CCTV camera of the Election Commission, where a few people are working inside. None of our representatives is inside...They are not letting us in. There is no transparency. They (BJP) are sending their people inside the strong room and tampering with the postal ballots...Shashi Panja and I are sitting on a protest...The party will take further action regarding this incident," Ghosh said.
Shashi Panja alleged that "something fishy is going on."
"Who are the ones inside the strong room?... One cannot go inside the strong room...We should have information about what is happening inside the strong room...Something fishy is going on...There are loopholes in the system," she alleged.
BJP leader Tapas Roy accused TMC of spreading "rumours".
"We will deploy two persons to look after the strong room...They (TMC) are just spreading rumours as they are preparing ground for their defeat...Three-layer security arrangements are here", he said.
The results of West Bengal polls will be declared on May 4, along with the outcome of polls in Assam, Keralam, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.