Falta repolling today, heavy central forces deployed across 285 booths
Kolkata: The re-polling in the Falta Assembly constituency in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas is set to commence on Thursday. Fresh voting will be conducted across all 285 polling stations in the constituency.
The voting will take place from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
The results will be declared on May 24.
Polling for Falta was conducted in the second phase of the recently concluded two-phase Assembly elections on April 29. However, on that day, several complaints of alleged electoral malpractices emerged from the constituency.
At several polling booths, the EVM buttons corresponding to the names and symbols of BJP candidates were allegedly covered with white tape.
Based on Gupta’s findings, the Election Commission of India (ECI) ordered re-polling across the entire Falta Assembly constituency.
Already, Trinamool Congress candidate Jahangir Khan had announced on Tuesday his decision to withdraw from the contest this time, keeping faith in CM Adhikari’s announcement of a development package for Falta.
Polling personnel are all set, and deployment activities are progressing smoothly, insiders from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, said on Wednesday.
“Continuous monitoring arrangements are in place to ensure that every aspect of the polling process remains smooth, all geared towards free, fair and peaceful polling tomorrow. The re-polling will be conducted under blanket security coverage by 35 companies of Central Armed Police Forces personnel, which is significantly high for a single Assembly constituency,” said an insider from the CEO’s office.
However, the CEO’s office clarified that, irrespective of Khan’s announcement, his name would remain as a Trinamool Congress candidate in the re-poll and continue to appear on the EVM.
“Polling for the Falta Assembly constituency had already been conducted once on April 29. On May 21, it will just be a re-poll. So, nothing else changes, including the candidates contesting from Falta,” the CEO’s office insider said.