Murshidabad (West Bengal) [India], May 4 : Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AUJP) founder and candidate from the Rejinagar Assembly constituency, Humayun Kabir, on Monday said that clarity on election trends would emerge within the next few hours as counting progresses.
Speaking to ANI, Kabir said, "We can wait for 2-3 hours, and everything will be clear after that. We will get to know the trends very soon. Counting agents have reached the counting centre. I also went there. Everything is fine..."
He added that all necessary arrangements at the counting centre were in place and there were no issues reported so far
Early trends show a tight contest between the incumbent TMC and the BJP with both parties showing about 110 early leads so far.
Birbhum contains 7 assembly constituencies, with 284-Dubrajpur (SC), 285-Suri, 286-Bolpur, 287-Nanoor (SC), 290-Mayureswar, 291- Rampurhat, 292- Hansan, and 294- Murarai.
The security has been tightened across Kolkata ahead of counting day on May 4, with heavy deployment outside several strongrooms, including Sakhawat Memorial Government Girls' High School in Bhabanipur and Netaji Indoor Stadium, among others.
A verbal spat broke out between polling agents of both parties, in which TMC alleged of not allowed to take files and a pen inside the counting centre, however, the same was allowed to the BJP polling agents.
"They are not allowing us to take files or pens inside, but the BJP polling agents are allowed to take them inside. Rules should be the same for everyone. We are the people of Mamata Banerjee. There is no bigger identity than this," a TMC polling agent said.
On the other hand, the BJP accused the TMC polling agents of not carrying identity cards for entering the polling station. "They are not carrying their ID cards.
The counting for the 294 assembly began at 8 AM today. However, Election Commission of India (ECI) has ordered repolling in all polling booths of Falta constituency after reports of alleged electoral malpractice took place.
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