Amid the ongoing Phase 3 polls of the West Bengal Assembly Election 2021 on Tuesday, Four EVMs and a similar number of VVPATs were recovered from the house of a Trinamool Congress leader in West Bengal's Howrah district, following which a poll official was suspended, a senior officer said on Tuesday.
The incident happened in Tulsiberia village in the Uluberia Uttar assembly segment, he said.
As per a report, the Election Commission of India has said that the EVM and VVPAT machines were taken to the TMC leader's residence by Tapan Sarkar, a sector officer in charge of elections.
The EC has suspended the sector officer and the EVM machines have been seized and has also been removed from the election process.
Villagers spotted a vehicle with an Election Commission sticker outside the house of the TMC leader in the early hours, after which they started protesting. Later, it was known that Tapan Sarkar, an officer of sector 17 was visiting the TMC leader’s residence with the EVMs, the officials said.
"The four machines are not being used in today’s polling. We have sought a report from the District Election Officer," he added.
Sarkar said that he was late at the place and found the polling booth closed, so he decided to spend the night at his relative’s house, as it was a safe place to stay at night. Noting it to be a "gross violation" of EC's instructions, the Election Commission has suspended sector officer Tapan Sarkar and relevant charges will be framed for a 'major punishment'.
A Central force team has been deployed in the area as the locals protested, after complaints of malpractices. The protesters even captured the Block Development Officer (BDO) who reached the spot to pacify the crowd.
BJP candidate Chiran Bera alleged that TMC has planned this to rig the election, however, TMC has denied the charges.
BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said, "This is an old habit of the TMC. It takes time to get over the old habits. They have been caught red-handed and it shows what they are up to."
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Polling for Phase 3 is underway in the area for 31 seats across 3 districts — South 24 Parganas, Howrah, and Hooghly. The first two phases of the state assembly elections were held on March 27 and April 1, respectively. The state will have five more phases of polling in the ongoing elections, and the last one will be conducted on April 29.
Votes will be counted on May 2.