Overview
- The Election Commission ordered a full repoll for the Falta Assembly constituency, which began voting on Thursday, May 21, after special observers flagged serious irregularities in the April 29 polling.
- Security was nearly doubled for the repoll with eight Central Armed Police Force personnel at each of Falta’s 285 booths, about 35 CAPF companies deployed, 30 quick-response teams on standby and live webcasting from multiple cameras.
- Observers documented missing or tampered CCTV and webcam footage at many stations and judged roughly 60 of 285 booths to be vitiated, while complaints included adhesive tape, perfume and other material applied to EVM buttons that obstructed verification.
- The repoll prompted pre-voting police action and political shifts: several arrests were made, Falta TMC candidate Jahangir Khan publicly withdrew though his name remains on ballots, and the BJP has intensified campaigning and predicted a decisive win.
- Falta sits in the Diamond Harbour belt long held by the TMC, so the repoll and the vote count scheduled for May 24 will be watched as a measure of the EC’s enforcement powers and of how local voters recover the ability to cast ballots free of reported intimidation.