SEC orders repoll in 2 booths today, panel chief meets guv

Kolkata: The State Election Commission on Monday ordered fresh polling in two booths — one each in South Dum Dum and Serampore — out of the 11,000 where civic elections were held on Sunday.
Repolling is scheduled on Tuesday at booth 4 in ward 33 of South Dum Dum Municipality and booth 3 in ward 25 of Serampore Municipality. An unauthenticated video clip, showing a person pressing an EVM button a number of times in the South Dum Dum booth, had gone viral on Monday night.
The SEC took its decision based on reports by district magistrates, springing a surprise on opposition parties because at least 1,000 complaints were filed and as many as 24 EVMs damaged during polling. Sources said the data in the broken EVMs were intact. Officials also held that the state poll panel acted on the DMs’ reports because it had “no other mechanism to collect information”.
During the 2018 panchayat elections, the SEC had ordered repolling in 568 booths.
At an hour-long Raj Bhavan meeting on Monday, state election commissioner Saurabh Das reportedly assured governor Jagdeep Dhankhar that he would take appropriate steps to resolve complaints. Dhankhar had wanted to know what was being done after there were “disturbing inputs depicting the scenario of violence” in large parts of the state. The governor later tweeted that the SEC had been asked to take measures to ensure the polls were fair.