The Trinamool Congress protesting outside the state election commission in Kolkata on Monday.
The newly appointed State Election Commissioner of West Bengal today ordered re-polls in 9 out of the 438 booths in Kolkata's Salt Lake and at 2 in Asansol. The opposition called it a farce,
gheraoed the commissioner as he was leaving his office. A united opposition of the Left, Congress and the BJP has also decided to boycott the re-polls. Counting is scheduled for 10 October.
"Violence on the streets is the state's law and order issue. What happened inside booths is our concern," said the new and interim poll chief, Mr Alapan Bandopadhyay, in an explanation for his decision.
The opposition parties are outraged. "It's a farce. Just yesterday, the commissioner said he would examine footage from webcams inside polling booths. He said he had 2000 hours of footage. And today he announces this ridiculous decision. We are boycotting the re-polls," said CPM's Gautam Deb.
The BJP and the Congress have announced that they were not going to participate in tomorrow's re-polling. This means the candidates will either be from ruling Trinamool Congress or independents.
On the day of the civic polls last Saturday, outsiders allegedly backed by the Trinamool Congress manhandled voters and cast false votes in Salt Lake. There were reports of violence in Asansol too. Next day, the then state election commissioner Sushanta Ranjan Upadhyay had put off counting scheduled for October 7.
On Monday, Trinamool sat on
dharna outside Mr Upadhyay's office. Its leaders were inside the office for four hours. Mr Upadhyay resigned the next day and Bandopadhyay, the transport secretary, flew down from Thimpu where he was meeting with chief minister Mamata Banerjee, to take over the charge.
The opposition has questioned his appointment, saying a serving bureaucrat can't function independently as an election commissioner.