The BJP has exceeded expectations in West Bengal with its performance in Lok Sabha elections. So far, the party is leading in 18 seats against 23 seats of the Trinamool Congress. There was widespread rigging during the elections by the Trinamool which was observed by various journalists. Now, BJP candidate from Kolkata Dakshin, Chandra Kumar Bose, has alleged that there has been a discrepancy in the aftermath of the elections as well.
Bose claims that more votes have been counted in the constituency than were actually cast. As per the official app of the Election Commission of India, a voter turn-out of 69.65% was recorded in the constituency. As per Bose, it translates to around to 11.97 lakh votes among 1719821 registered voters. However, the actual votes that were counted as showing in the ECI results website was 1490235, which translates to an 87% voter turnout.
Bose has approached the Election Commission and registered a complaint regarding the matter. Amusingly enough at 5.40, the total votes counted was adjusted on the Election Commission website and by some magic, around 3 lakh votes disappeared into thin air. But the final number of votes counted is still greater than the number that was polled according to official stats by the ECI.
The Election Commission, for its part, has claimed that it was human error on its part and that someone updated the website with the wrong numbers, ABP Ananda reported. It may be noted that ECI is yet to release the final voter turnout numbers for the seventh phase, which includes Kolkata South. Therefore it is possible that actual turnout numbers may have gone up. However, considering the events in West Bengal since polling began, it’s understandable why many people including the BJP candidate find it hard to believe.
