Kolkata: Voting began on Thursday morning for the re-election to the Falta assembly seat in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district, amid tight security, officials said.
More than 2.36 lakh people, including 1.15 lakh women and nine belonging to the third gender, are eligible to cast their votes across 285 booths in this re-election, which commenced at 7 am, they said.
The repoll was ordered due to “severe electoral offences and subversion of the democratic process” on April 29, when voting in Falta was held in the second phase of the assembly elections, the officials said.
A total of six candidates are in the fray, including TMC's Jahangir Khan, who announced he was withdrawing from the race on Tuesday.
Even as Khan announced pulling out from the contest, his name remained on the EVMs as he couldn't officially withdraw his candidature. Among other candidates are Debangshu Panda of the BJP, CPI(M)'s Sambhu Nath Kurmi, and Congress' Abdur Razzak Molla.
A total of 35 companies of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) have been deployed for the repoll, with eight personnel, equivalent to one full section, at each booth, the officials said.
On April 29, only four personnel, or half a section, had been stationed at each booth, they added.
Additionally, 30 Quick Response Teams (QRTs) are on standby to respond swiftly to any disturbance.
Political tensions have remained high in the constituency since allegations surfaced from multiple booths that perfume substances and adhesive tapes had been applied to EVMs during the earlier polling.
Former Special Observer of the Election Commission, Subrata Gupta, had visited the constituency and conducted a scrutiny, following which evidence of alleged tampering was detected in at least 60 booths.
Apart from the alleged EVM manipulation, authorities also found attempts to tamper with footage captured by web cameras installed at several polling stations.
Questions were subsequently raised over the role of booth-level officers (BLOs), presiding officers, polling personnel and election observers.
The TMC has won the Falta seat since 2001, barring the 2006 assembly polls, when the CPI(M) had bagged the seat.
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