TMC posts photos of EVMs with ‘BJP tags on them’; Election Commission replies

New Delhi, May 25

With two deaths confirmed and reports of poll-related tension surfacing mainly from East Midnapore and West Midnapore districts, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Saturday alleged that five Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) in West Bengal’s Raghunathpur were found with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) tags on them.

It urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to take corrective action.

“Smt. @MamataOfficial has repeatedly flagged how @BJP4India was trying to rig votes by tampering with EVMs. And today, in Bankura’s Raghunathpur, 5 EVMs were found with BJP tags on them. @ECISVEEP should immediately look into it and take corrective action!” the party said in a post on X.

The Election Commission replied: “While commissioning, common address tags were signed by the Candidates and their agents present. And since only BJP Candidate’s representative was present during that time in the commissioning hall, his signature was taken during commissioning of that EVM and VVPAT.”

Tension mounted at Belatikri area under Lalgarh Police Station in Jhargram Lok Sabha constituency following the recovery of the body of a youth with injuries throughout his body.

The deceased has been identified as Uttam Mahato. The local police, however, claimed that there was no relation of politics or poll-related violence with the incident. There was also confusion about the political affiliation of the deceased.

This is the second death reported since early Saturday morning, the first being the killing of a local Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh Moibul reportedly following clashes between the BJP and ruling party activists.

Tension was also reported from Sabang in West Midnapore district, where a polling agent of BJP was injured following an attack on him allegedly by ruling Trinamool Congress activists. He has been admitted to Sabang Hospital with head injuries.

Trinamool Congress has alleged that the local BJP activists at Nandigram under Tamluk Lok Sabha have destroyed a connecting footbridge there so that the local villagers are unable to reach the polling station. The ruling party leadership has claimed that they will be approaching the Election Commission of India and update the latter about the development.

with IANS inputs