Kolkata, May 24 (IANS). Counting of votes for Falta assembly constituency in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal has started from 8 am on Sunday amid tight security arrangements.
Re-polling for the assembly constituency was held on May 21 as per the instructions of the Election Commission of India (ECI). According to information received from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal, there will be a total of 21 phases of counting and the result will be clear by 1 pm.
The counting representative of Trinamool Congress was absent at the counting centre. The party’s candidate Jahangir Khan had withdrawn his name just before the re-polling on 21 May.
However, his absence from the voting was only symbolic as he had announced it just a day before the re-polling and had participated in the earlier voting. Even on the day of re-polling, his name was registered in the EVM.
The voting process on May 21 was completely peaceful. Many voters standing in queues that day claimed that it was the first time that they could vote peacefully without any threats, obstacles and fear. The voting percentage was more than 88 percent.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate is Debanshu Panda, CPI(M) candidate is Shambhu Kurmi and Congress candidate is Abdur Razzaq. In the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, Trinamool Congress’s Shankar Kumar won from Naskar Falta by a margin of 41,000 votes.
Falta is one of the seven assembly seats under the Diamond Harbor Lok Sabha constituency. Abhishek Banerjee, general secretary of Trinamool Congress and nephew of Mamata Banerjee, has been MP from this seat three times.
Falta assembly constituency gave Banerjee a lead of around 1,20,000 votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, which opposition parties termed as a travesty of the voting process.
Voting for the Falta assembly constituency was held on April 29 in the second phase of the recently concluded two-phase assembly elections in the state.
On April 29, several complaints of election rigging were filed in Falta. At many polling stations, EVM buttons bearing names and symbols of BJP candidates were covered with white tape. Hundreds of voters took to the streets after supporters of Jahangir Khan allegedly prevented them from voting.
After this, Special Election Observer Subrata Gupta personally visited Falta and investigated the matter. Based on Subrata Gupta’s investigation, the Election Commission of India (ECI) had ordered re-polling in the entire Falta Assembly constituency.
–IANS
OP/PM
