Kolkata: Officials in West Bengal announced that revoting had begun at 7 a.m. on Monday in 696 polling stations in 19 districts where voting in the panchayat elections had been deemed null due to claims of tampering with vote boxes and the violence that resulted in 15 deaths.
They claimed that state police and four members of the central forces would be stationed at each polling place to ensure the safety of voters during the revoting, which would take place until 5 p.m.
They noted that out of the districts where revoting was taking place, violence-stricken Murshidabad had 175 polling stations and Malda had 109.
Officials said that revoting was taking place in 89 polling stations in Nadia, 53 in Cooch Behar, 46 in North 24 Parganas, 42 in Uttar Dinajpur, 36 in South 24 Parganas, 31 in Purba Medinipur, and 29 in Hooghly.
They claimed that the districts of Darjeeling, Jhargram, and Kalimpong would not be subject to a repolling.
After analysing complaints of violence and tampering with ballot boxes and ballot papers, the State Election Commission (SEC) declared on Sunday evening that they would order a repoll in these 696 booths.
For the three-tiered panchayat elections, voting took place in approximately 61,000 polling stations on Saturday. There was violence after ballot boxes were stolen, burned, and dumped in water.
There were 73,887 panchayat seats up for election, and 5.67 crore individuals who live in rural portions of the state were entitled to vote for them.—Inputs from Agencies