Bengal CEO dismisses scope for wrongdoing at strongrooms

A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee spent hours at the EVM strongroom of her Bhabanipur constituency, alleging possibilities of malpractices, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal on Friday asserted there is no scope for wrongdoing at the counting centres.

Following tensions around two counting centres in Kolkata late on Thursday, police clamped prohibitory orders on gatherings outside all seven strongrooms in the city. Stating that round-the-clock CCTV monitoring of strongrooms was in place, Agarwal dismissed the allegations as “baseless”.

TMC spokesperson and Beleghata constituency candidate Kunal Ghosh said that party workers and poll aspirants were keeping a strict vigil at the counting centres, where the EVMs are stored in strongrooms, upon directions of party supremo Mamata Banerjee.

“There is no scope for any wrongdoing, given the arrangements made to secure the EVMs. The Centres have been kept under thorough CCTV coverage, and their live-streamed footage can be seen from outside,” Agarwal told reporters.

“One should have reason and evidence for making allegations,” he said, maintaining that there were no grounds for levelling charges of EVM tampering or pre-counting malpractice.

Two counting centres in Kolkata witnessed high drama late on Thursday evening after TMC leaders alleged a lack of transparency and possible malpractice at the strongrooms housing sealed EVMs of the Assembly polls, which concluded on April 29.

Mamata Banerjee herself landed up at the Sakhawat Memorial School counting centre and stayed put there for about four hours.