Bengal Assembly Elections 2021: Trinamul team asks EC to count all VVPAT slips

The party is demanding a 100 per cent tally 'to reassure the voters that his/her choice has indeed been recorded, both electronically and physically'

The Supreme Court had rejected a demand to count 50 per cent of the slips. Trinamul feels the Election Commission is using the court ruling as an excuse to reject any related demand made since then. The party has described as “exaggerated” the commission’s claims a 100 per cent tally would take five to six days longer.: File picture

Pheroze L. Vincent   |  TT   |   New Delhi   |   20.03.21 : The Trinamul Congress on Friday alleged a “partisan and biased approach” by the Election Commission in the ongoing poll process in Bengal and demanded that all slips printed by the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines be counted.

The slip shows the voter the candidate she or he voted for.

After a Supreme Court order in 2019, five VVPAT slips in each Assembly constituency are tallied with the corresponding electronic voting machine. In case of a mismatch, only the VVPAT count is considered and the EVM count disregarded for that particular EVM. The election itself is not countermanded.

The Supreme Court had rejected a demand to count 50 per cent of the slips. Trinamul feels the Election Commission is using the court ruling as an excuse to reject any related demand made since then. The party has described as “exaggerated” the commission’s claims a 100 per cent tally would take five to six days longer.

The party is demanding a 100 per count “to reassure the voters that his/her choice has indeed been recorded, both electronically and physically”.

A delegation of serving and former MPs, including the recently inducted Yashwant Sinha, called on the Election Commission on Friday and  submitted a memorandum. The delegation included Derek O’Brien, Saugata Roy, Nadimul Haque, Mahua Moitra, Pratima  Mondal.

The memorandum said: “It is becoming increasingly clear that free, fair and transparent elections in Bengal is becoming a distant reality. This is evident from the partisan and biased approach taken by the Election Commission of India (ECI)….

“On the first count, it has been reported in media that the ECI has decided to not permit presence of state police within 100 metres of polling stations and only deploy central forces in such arena. If true, this decision is unprecedented and casts severe aspersions on the reputation of the police administration in the State of West Bengal.”

Although the commission has stuck to its policy of not publicly responding to memoranda from parties, a senior official denied that any such order had been passed. He told The Telegraph: “Not only state police, but also home guards (who are controlled by state police) will be present in booths. The latter may be used to assist people in queues. We have only prevented agencies like the civic police, green police and student police — which are voluntary groups — from any election duty.”

A BJP delegation also called on the commission and requested that central forces be asked to verify identity cards at polling booths.