Kolkata, April 30 West Bengal Cabinet member and a top state leader of the Trinamool Congress have started a sit-in demonstration in front of an EVM strongroom in Kolkata from Thursday evening, expressing apprehension of tampering with the EVMs stored there.
The West Bengal Minister of Women & Child Development, Social Welfare and Commerce & Industries departments, Sashi Panja, and the Trinamool Congress’s state General Secretary Kunal Ghosh, both of whom are candidates in the state Assembly polls this time, while starting the sit-in protest, claimed they doubt that the party workers deployed for guarding outside the EVM strong-rooms have been deliberately moved away by the Central forces with some nefarious intentions of EVM tampering within the EVM strong-room.
They also claimed that the Election Commission of India (ECI) should be more transparent, making everyone aware of what is happening within the strong rooms.
Incidentally, the sit-in demonstration at Khudiram Anushilan Kendra in central Kolkata, which is an important venue of the EVM strong room for the Assembly constituencies in North Kolkata, started just a couple of hours after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee released a video message expressing apprehension of EVM tampering and also gave a call to the party workers and leaders to guard the strong rooms.
She also said she will be on the streets guarding the strong rooms until the counting starts on the morning of May 4.
According to Ghosh, the Trinamool Congress candidate this time from Beliaghata Assembly constituency in North Kolkata, the Trinamool Congress workers were present in front of the strong rooms at Khudiram Anushilan Kendra till 3.30 p.m.
“Thereafter, they were removed in the afternoon by the Central forces. In the meantime, an email was suddenly sent informing me that the strong room would reopen at 4:00 p.m. We then contacted the party workers by phone. We asked whether they were there. They said that they had left. Then the two of us rushed to the place. Now they are not letting us in. They are inviting the Bharatiya Janata Party,” Ghosh added.
Panja said that the issue of strong-room guarding is an extremely sensitive one in this election. She questioned why every political party was not informed if the strong room was opened.
--IANS
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