West Bengal assembly elections 2021: On Mamata Banerjee's Nandigram claims, EC replies ‘allegations factually incorrect'

Mamata Banerjee’s allegations regarding disruption of voting in Nandigram during the second phase of West Bengal assembly elections are factually incorrect and devoid of substance, the Election Commission of India said on Sunday in its reply to the chief minister’s complaint.

“It is self-evident from the perusal of all the reports that the allegations mentioned in your hand-written note are factually incorrect, without any empirical evidence whatsoever and devoid of substance," the Election Commission replied to the West Bengal chief minister.

Mamata Banerjee had on Thursday, the day of second phase polling, sent a handwritten letter to the Election Commission alleging violence at a poll booth in Nandigram, from where she is contesting the West Bengal assembly election. She also complained about electronic voting machine malfunctioning and dereliction of duty by central police forces. She claimed that the “outsiders of the BJP party” had captured booth 7 in Nandigram’s Boyal.

The Trinamool Congress told the Election Cmmission that it has received over 300 complaints of violence by members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “There has been widespread and rampant violence in the various ACs that underwent elections during Phase I and II wherein the electors were threatened, intimidated, terrorised, and beaten up by members and stooges of BJP to prevent them from casting votes in favour of the All-India Trinamool Congress,” the complaint stated.

The Election Commission dismissed the allegations and said that it is a matter of deep regret that a "media narrative was sought to be weaved hour after hour to misguide the biggest stakeholders, which is the voters, by a candidate who also happens to be CM of the state".

The poll body told Mamata Banerjee that it was separately examined if events during the second phase polling merit any action under the Representation of the People Act and the Model Code of Conduct.

According to the Election Commission, barring a few people shouting slogans for and against Mamata Banerjee, there is no report of any violence, nor was there any

intimidation of voters. It asserted that the polling process was not disrupted and was exercise was conducted peacefully.

The poll body also cited media footage that showed “dozens of audio-visual shots of your being in this polling station and literally hurling an avalanche of allegations on some officials working with the government of West Bengal itself, paramilitary forces and eventually the Election Commission."