Bengal panchayat polls: Re-polling in certain booths under central armed forces cover on Monday

Kolkata: A day after the violence-marred panchayat polls, the West Bengal State Election Commission on Sunday announced that there will be re-polling in certain booths and under complete security cover by central armed force as per the central deployment norms.

However, while making the announcement, the commission did not specify in how many booths will the re-polling will be conducted and what would be the geographical distribution of the booths.

On Sunday afternoon, a State Election Commission official also said that the final voting percentage on Saturday was 80.71 per cent. It is learnt that on Saturday till 5 p.m., which was end of the polling period, the percentage was recorded at 66.28 per cent. But in several booths, polling continued hours after that as many voters were standing in the queue at 5 p.m. and as per election norms, had to be allowed to cast their ballots.

“In certain booths, polling continued even up to 10 p.m. on Saturday and the final voting percentage calculation was 80.71 per cent,” he said.

Incidentally, on Monday, several petitions are slated to be filed at the Calcutta High Court on massive violence and bloodbath on the polling day. The total death count since the beginning of the polling since Saturday morning has been reported at 17. The maximum number for deaths have been recorded from Murshidabad district at five, followed by three in South 24 Parganas, two each in Cooch Behar, East Burdwan, Malda, and North Dinajpur districts and one in Nadia district.

With this total death count, since the announcement of polling dates on June 8, has risen to 36, with 19 recorded till Friday night.