A TOTAL of 69.85-per cent voter turnout was recorded till 5 pm in 696 booths in 19 districts of West Bengal, where polling for the panchayat elections was declared void, officials said. No major incident was reported in the repolling ordered by the State Election Commission (SEC) on Sunday evening amid allegations of tampering with ballot boxes and the violence that left 15 people dead, they said. The repolling started at 7 am amid tight security with four central forces personnel deployed in each booth, besides state police. Voting started late in a few booths as ballot boxes did not reach on time, officials said. These booths will be given extra time to complete the polling, they said. Counting of votes, including those in the repolling, will be held on July 11.

 

“No major untoward incidents were reported from the districts where repolling is underway. A couple of stray incidents happened and those were managed by the police,” an SEC official said. However, one person died due to cardiac arrest while standing in the queue to vote in Tehatta sub-division of Nadia district, police said. In Malda, locals blocked a booth in Dogachi in Raniganj panchayat in Gazole block, preventing the repoll. Polling could not be held on Saturday, too, as the locals boycotted the vote demanding the repair of a road.

 

A road was blocked at Tehatta in Nadia in the morning, but it was later cleared by the police. Voters also demonstrated outside a booth at Mayna in Purba Medinipur district, he said. As large numbers of people are still inside the polling booths waiting for their turn, presiding officers will allow all those who entered by 5 pm to cast their vote. In the booths where the poll process started late due to logistical reasons, voting will also end late. Commenting on the repolling, Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said the BJP submitted a list of 6,000 booths to the SEC, demanding re-election. “Actually, false voting took place in 18,000 booths at the behest of the TMC. We are collecting more evidence. Our list was apparently overlooked by State Election Commissioner Rajiva Sinha,” he claimed.