Kolkata: Hours after declaring the panchayat poll results, the West Bengal State Election Commission ordered fresh election in nearly 20 booths in Howrah, Hooghly and North 24 Parganas districts. The voting in these booths were cancelled following complaints of ballot paper tampering and theft on the day of counting, sources said.
The elections for the three-tier panchayat system was held on July 8 and repolling was held in 696 booths where voting was declared void due to violence and tampering with voting process on July 10.
Among the booths where fresh polling has been ordered included 15 in Howrah, four in North 24 Parganas and one in Hooghly, a notification issued by the commission read.
State Election Commissioner Rajiva Sinha said that polls have been cancelled and fresh elections will be held in these booths. "We will announce the election dates later. This is not a repolling. There will be a fresh election," Sinha said.
Earlier, Governor CV Ananda Bose directed the Election Commission to submit the 7,500 complaints received in the Governor's Peace Room to the High Court for judicial scrutiny. He also suggested that the results of the elections may be suspended till the investigation of violence and all other allegations are taken care of.
Responding to reporters on submitting the complaints, a visibly angry Sinha said, "To whom will I submit it!". Sinha claimed that action has been taken on every complaint that the commission received.
Notably, Sankrail's Trinamool Congress MLA Priya Pal has been accused of taking away the certificates of several winning candidates of the opposition parties. The MLA was also accused of entering the polling and counting centres in Sankrail block by using illegal entry cards.
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According to sources, Pal took away the certificates of BJP candidates Abhishek Mishra, Sanchita Das, Bablu Chowdhury and Mukesh Singh who won in booth numbers 232, 237, 239, 238 of Sankrail Police Station area respectively. Protesting against this incident, the district BJP lodged a complaint with the District Magistrate.
