Trinamool Congress raises fears of EVM tampering in Bengal polls

Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress on Thursday expressed apprehension over possible attempts to hack electronic voting machines (EVMs) to be used in the crucial two-phase polling in West Bengal next month.

The party’s Lok Sabha member from Jadavpur constituency in South 24 Parganas district, actor-turned-politician Sayani Ghosh, made the remarks while speaking to the media on Thursday afternoon at a press conference jointly addressed with West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu.

“When nothing is working out in their (hinting towards the BJP) favour, and when the Trinamool Congress could not be stopped by intimidation or by using agencies, now they are trying to hack the EVMs,” Ghosh said.

She also launched a scathing attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the recent transfers, replacements and deputations of bureaucrats and police officers from West Bengal to other states.

“The ECI is practically working as the BJP’s agent. A total of 73 returning officers in the state have been removed. Earlier, the state Director General of Police, Additional Director (Law and Order), and other top officials were transferred overnight. There is a deep-rooted political controversy behind it. They have been removed intentionally and at the behest of the BJP,” Ghosh said.

Speaking on the occasion, Basu also accused the Commission of deputing either tainted officers from other states or officers close to the BJP as observers in West Bengal.

“An officer with family links to the BJP has been sent as a police observer in Malda. Maharashtra cadre officer Dheeraj Kumar, who is allegedly involved in an Rs 8,000 crore ambulance tender scam in Maharashtra, has been brought as an observer in Gajole, also in Malda. Ajay Katisaria, who is known to be a corrupt officer in Madhya Pradesh, has been appointed as the observer for Bangaon (South) in North 24 Parganas. The BJP government later gave him a clean chit to save him. By appointing such tainted officers, the BJP is actually weaving a web of ‘systematic’ corruption in the name of elections,” Basu said.

IANS