West Bengal Elections 2026: EVM Malfunction; SC Dismisses TMC Plea
West Bengal: Voting was halted for over an hour at the Diamond Harbour polling station during the repolling being conducted on Saturday. As per reports an electronic voting machine malfunctioned disrupting the voting. Long queues were seen outside the polling booths agitating the voters.
Expressing frustration, 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 voter.
Meanwhile, the SC dismissed TMCs plea challenging the exclusion of the state government employees from vote counting supervisor duties. It clarified that the ECI has the perogative to choose the pool of officers for vote counting.
The plea came following a court order that stated even if both the counting supervisor and the agent are central government officials, the circular cannot be faulted on that ground. Further the EC assured that the court is complying fully with the counsel DS Naidu stating that the arrangements ensure balance.
Earlier today, a fresh round of voting began in 15 polling booths across two assembly constituencies – Diamond Harbour and Magrahat Paschim – of West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district. The repolling began at 7 am and is scheduled to run through 6pm. Heightened security is being observed with CRPF armored vehicles being station outside strong rooms.
The repolling comes following the decision by ECI based on a complaint by BJP. The rival party alleged tampering of electronic voting machines (EVMs), booth jamming and rigging in 15 polling booths that went to polls in the second phase on April 29. Officials said that the re-election was declared following reports of electoral malpractices. They added to have received over 29 complaints from Diamond Harbour and 13 from Magrahat.
11 booths in Magrahat Paschim and four booths in Diamond Harbour are undergoing a repolling today. It is worth noting that the Diamond Harbour assembly constituency is a stronghold of Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
According to exit polls of the first round, Chanakya was the closest, but fell short of the actual numbers with an estimate of 169 to 191 seats for the TMC and 97 to 119 for BJP.
The WB assembly elections were held in 2 phases-23 and 29 April following a repoll on May 2. The votes will be counted on 4th May. Predictions hint a victory for BJP.
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