Counting of votes for the repoll in West Bengal’s Falta Assembly constituency began at 8 am on Sunday amid tight security, an Election Commission official said.
The repoll across all 285 booths in the South 24 Parganas seat was held on May 21 after voting during the second phase of Assembly elections on April 29 was countermanded over allegations of EVM tampering and irregularities.
"The counting is progressing peacefully. Adequate security arrangements have been made at the counting centre," a poll panel official said.
BJP's Debangshu Panda raced ahead of his nearest CPI(M) rival by over 14,000 votes, after the fifth round of counting.
After five of the 21 counting rounds, Panda bagged 30,562 votes, opening up a lead of 14,514 votes over CPI(M) candidate Sambhu Nath Kurmi, who polled 16,048 votes.
Trinamool Congress nominee Jahangir Khan, who had announced two days before the repoll that he would not contest and described it as a personal decision, trailed in the fourth place with 1,685 votes.
Congress candidate Abdur Razzak Molla was placed third with 3,510 votes after the fifth round of countng
More than 87 per cent of the constituency’s 2.36 lakh voters participated in the repoll.
The Election Commission had strengthened security, deploying around 35 companies of central forces to ensure smooth polling.
The constituency had witnessed heightened tensions since the April 29 polling after complaints surfaced from several booths alleging perfume-like substances and adhesive tapes had been applied to EVMs.
Scrutiny later revealed alleged attempts to tamper with footage recorded by web cameras at multiple polling stations, raising concerns over the role of booth-level officers, presiding officers, polling staff and election observers.
Following its findings, the Election Commission ordered a repoll in all booths of the constituency.
(With inputs from PTI)
