New Delhi [India], April 30 : Election Commission officials on Thursday rejected allegations of Trinamool Congress about "opening of ballot boxes without the presence of any relevant party stakeholders" and said the main strong rooms are safely secured and locked and segregation of the ballot was taking place in the corridor of strong rooms.
In an apparent reference to the video posted by Trinamool Congress on its X handle, the officials said that all strong rooms containing polled EVMs are safely secured and sealed. They noted that there was routine segregation of postal ballots.
"With reference to video being circulated on social media handles: there are 7 AC strong rooms inside the Kgudiram Anushilan Kendra; they all have been duly closed and sealed in the presence of Candidates/Election agents and General Observer after completion of poll yesterday. Last Strong room was closed in the morning around 5.15am," an Election Commission official said.
"All strong rooms containing polled EVMs are safely secured and sealed. There is another strong room in the same premise for Postal ballot wherein we have kept AC-wise polled ballots as done by different polling personnel and ETBPS (Electronic Transmitted Postal Ballot System)," the official added.
Officials said that the poll panel had notified all observers, ROs and requested ROs to inform their candidates and agents about this.
"ROs informed the political parties by mail. The segregation of the ballot was taking place in the corridor of strong rooms containing polled premise from 4pm. The main strong rooms are safely secured and locked. The same was duly shown to Shashi Panja, Kunal Ghosh and Kali from BJP," the official said.
The controversy erupted after the TMC alleged that the BJP "in active collusion" with the Election Commission "is opening ballot boxes without the presence of any relevant party stakeholders" and said "this is the murder of democracy in broad daylight."
In a post on X, the party also shared a video, stating that "opening of ballot boxes" is gross electoral fraud.
"ALARMING This is the murder of democracy in broad daylight. CCTV footage has exposed how @BJP4India, in active collusion with the @ECISVEEP, is opening ballot boxes without the presence of any relevant party stakeholders. This is gross electoral fraud being committed openly with the full knowledge and protection of the Election Commission," the Trinamool Congress said.
TMC accused the BJP of trying "every dirty trick" to defeat it in assembly polls and "stooping to tampering with EVMs" in desperation.
Senior TMC leaders Shashi Panja and Kunal Ghosh immediately held a dharna outside the Netaji Indoor Stadium.
"You can watch the livestreaming and CCTV camera of the Election Commission, where a few people are working inside. None of our representatives is inside...They are not letting us in. There is no transparency. They (BJP) are sending their people inside the strong room and tampering with the postal ballots...Shashi Panja and I are sitting on a protest...The party will take further action regarding this incident," Ghosh said.
Shashi Panja alleged that "something fishy is going on."
"Who are the ones inside the strong room?... One cannot go inside the strong room...We should have information about what is happening inside the strong room...Something fishy is going on...There are loopholes in the system," she alleged.
BJP leader Tapas Roy accused TMC of spreading "rumours".
"We will deploy two persons to look after the strong room...They (TMC) are just spreading rumours as they are preparing ground for their defeat...Three-layer security arrangements are here", he said.
Ghosh later said they had called off the dharna.
"What happened today is a mistake of the EC. It was decided that after today, nobody will break open the seal of strong room and go inside without informing officially. This was the first decision. What happened today was wrong. More CCTV cameras are needed there, they have agreed. It should reflect on screen. We have told them about our observations," he told ANI.
"We do not intent to do anything illegally. We opposed when they were doing something illegal. We have one question, they have broken open the seal of strong room without intimating and we were opposing it, why is the BJP so troubled?...This means that had malicious intentions," he added.
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