Kolkata, April 30 (IANS) The Election Commission of India (ECI) will on Thursday decide on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s demand to conduct repolling in 77 booths across four Assembly constituencies in the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, which went to the polls in the second phase of the Assembly elections on April 29.

Incidentally, out of these 77 polling booths, 64 are under the Diamond Harbour subdivision in that district and also under the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency, where the elected MP is the Trinamool Congress’ general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee.

An insider from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said that of the 77 polling booths where repolling has been demanded by the BJP, 32 are under the Falta Assembly constituency, 29 under the Diamond Harbour Assembly seat, three in the Budge Budge constituency and 13 under the Magrahat (Purba) Assembly constituency.

The first three Assembly constituencies come under Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha, and Magrahat (Purba) comes under Jaynagar Lok Sabha, with both Parliamentary constituencies being in the South 24 Parganas district.

In the first phase of the Assembly polls on April 23, there was no repolling, and no demand for repolling was made by any political party.

Falta Assembly constituency has been in the news for the last few days, first because of the battle of dialogues between the ECI-appointed police observer for Diamond Harbour subdivision, Ajay Pal Sharma, an Indian Police Officer and the Trinamool Congress candidate from Falta, Jahangir Khan.

Again, on Wednesday, Falta became the epicentre of controversy after it was noticed that the EVM buttons beside the name and symbol of the BJP candidate were covered with white tape.

The ECI immediately took cognisance of the matter and asked for a report from the CEO’s office. “The reports have been sent, and the ECI is expected to make a decision on repolling on Thursday,” a CEO’s office insider said.

–IANS

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