In a polling station at Kanthi (Contai, Purba Medinipur district) West Bengal, a voter complained that after he pressed the button and voted for TMC, the VVPAT gave the slip denoting the vote for BJP. That led to a ruckus at the site and protests against the Election Commission of India. There were also incidents in places like Bhagabanpur, Purba Medinipur, where the saffron camp tried to influence the SOPs of the election commission.

The first phase of election in West Bengal concluded on Saturday with few incidents of clashes and complaints regarding EVM machines from various polling-stations.

Also See: West Bengal 2021: Battleground for BJP and TMC

In the same context, the Election commission of India had changed its rules for the polling agents, which were framed in 2009. The 2009 rules mandated that the polling agent needs to be a voter under that polling station or an adjacent one. The new rules were released on March 26, a day prior to the beginning of the election in West Bengal, and relaxed the requirement underlined by the 2009 rules. A delegation of ten TMC leaders including Derek O’brien has rasied a notice with the  ECI to reverse the change in the rules.

Sources on the condition of anonymity stated that the rules were changed to provide leverage to BJP to get polling agents from across the state, when the saffron camp is having trouble getting polling agents.

All of this, especially the Kanthi incident, begs a question, ie is Election Commission of India playing stooge at the hands of the saffron camp?

Election in West Bengal is scheduled to be held in 8 phases from March 27 to April, 29 and the vote counting will take place on May, 02, 2021.