Repolling at 15 booths across two Assembly constituencies in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district concluded at 6 pm on Saturday, with voter turnout reaching 86.9 per cent till 5 pm, according to an EC official. The official added that the figure from one booth still awaited.
Voting began at 7 am and continued till 6 pm.
Polling was more or less peaceful at 11 polling booths of Magrahat Paschim assembly constituency and four in Diamond Harbour. The Election Commission had ordered a repoll on Friday, following reports of electoral malpractices.
Voting in these two assembly constituencies was held in the second phase of the state elections on April 29.
"So far, polling has been peaceful with none of the two assembly constituencies reporting any incident of violence or unrest," the EC official told PTI.
"We have an adequate number of central forces in the two constituencies. Webcasting is also being conducted, and we are monitoring the proceedings," he said.
In one incident of poll violence at booth number 179 at Chanda Primary School of Diamond Harbour seat, the Trinamool Congress alleged that a specially abled voter and his mother were harassed by central forces. The alleged incident sparked protests by party workers and locals.
The TMC claimed that the voter's mother, who had entered the booth to assist him, and her son were detained for a considerable time by central forces over alleged rule violations.
"TMC leaders Manmohini Biswas and Pratik Ur Rahman reached the spot and led the protests, with residents terming the action unwarranted harassment. The matter has been taken care of by our officials there," an official of the poll body said.
Reports of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) malfunction too emerged.
Earlier in the day, repolling in one of the booths was halted for over an hour after an EVM reportedly malfunctioned. Electors had to wait in queue for a long time.
Expressing frustration over the incident, one voter asked the officials to clarify the situation or, instead, just shut the booth.
"If it is not happening (voting), close the booth, tell us and we will go home. Why are we standing here? Why are we here? It has been more than half an hour, they should close it, so that we can go home," said the elector.
However, electors in another booth in Diamond Harbour said that the repolling in their booth was "fine", while acknowledging that there were irregularities with polling on April 29.
After voting at booth number 117, in Diamond Harbour constituency, a voter told ANI, "It was fine earlier too, it is fine now as well. Such things (re-polling) keep happening. There is no problem."
Another voter at the booth stated, "The machine was malfunctioning the last time. It is fine in the re-polling."
Voting in these two assembly constituencies was held in the second phase of the state elections on April 29. The EC had said that the repoll order was based on reports received from returning officers and observers of the two constituencies and "material circumstances".
In Magrahat Paschim, TMC's Md Samim Ahamed Molla is pitted against BJP nominee Goursundar Ghosh, while Abdul Majid Halder of the Congress and ISF candidate Abdul Aziz Al Hassan are in the fray.
TMC candidate Panna Lal Halder is contesting against Dipak Kumar Halder of the BJP in the Diamond Harbour seat. Goutam Bhattacharya of the Congress and CPI(M)'s Samar Naiya are among other candidates.
Notably, the BJP has alleged widespread electoral malpractices in certain polling stations in both seats, which fall under the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency represented by Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
The Election Commission deputed its special observer, Subrata Gupta, to verify the allegations on the ground.
The poll body will decide on ordering a repoll in the Falta assembly constituency on Saturday.
The West Bengal assembly elections were held in two phases on April 23 and April 29 amid heavy security arrangements. Counting of votes will take place on May 4.
(With inputs from PTI, ANI)
