Mamata Banerjee Accuses ECI and BJP of Tampering with EVMs in West Bengal Assembly Election

A day after polling concluded in the West Bengal Assembly election on Wednesday (April 30), Chief Minister and All-India Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee on Thursday night hit out at the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the BJP. She alleged that there had been an attempt to tamper with the electronic voting machines (EVMs) stored at a strongroom till counting of votes on May 4. Banerjee camped for hours , until midnight, at one such strongroom location in Kolkata , while asking all party candidates to guard the strongrooms and counting centres in their respective Assembly constituencies. West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal denied the charge, saying the ECI’s statutory procedure was followed. As per the ECI, a video released by the TMC alleging tampering actually showed the segregation of postal ballots being carried out at a strongroom after informing all candidates. The TMC had alleged that ECI officials and BJP representatives were tampering with the postal ballots. What the procedure says The ECI’s procedure for handling EVMs before, during and after polling is laid out in its Manual on Electronic Voting Machines, 2023. Before the election, EVMs are stored in a warehouse under the control of the District Election Officer (DEO), who is the District Magistrate. Once elections are underway, the EVMs are randomised in the presence of representatives of national and state-recognised parties and sent to the respective strongrooms in each Assembly constituency. The entire process is to be conducted under 24/7 CCTV coverage, the manual says. The strongrooms also have armed security. It is from these strongrooms that the EVMs are dispatched to the polling booths. After polls close on voting day, the EVMs are to be sealed and escorted back to the strongrooms by the poll officials and security personnel. Candidates and their polling agents usually follow the vehicles carrying the polled EVMs from the booths to the strongrooms. The manual says all polled EVMs should be stored in one strongroom and unused EVMs in a separate strongroom marked “reserve EVM”. The manual lays out all specifications of the strongroom, starting with the dimensions of the shelves on which the EVMs are to be placed (6 feet by 2 feet). The strongrooms must have a single entry/exit point, with all other doors and windows to be sealed with brick masonry or concrete. This door needs a double lock system. The keys of the first lock are to be kept with the Returning Officer (RO), and the keys of the second lock with the Assistant RO. At least one platoon of armed police has to be deployed 24/7. Apart from CCTV cameras with an uninterrupted power supply, the time of the opening and closing of the strong rooms has to be videographed. The manual says separate log books should be maintained for entry/exit of security personnel and other authorised officials (ECI’s observers, DEOs or Superintendents of Police). “No entry for any vehicle including VIPs & officials,” the manual says. The protocol for the polled EVMs, as per the manual, includes informing all candidates 24 hours in advance so that they can depute representatives to keep a watch on the security arrangements. The RO is to visit the storage campus, till the inner-most perimeter, twice a day to check the log book and video feeds, and to send a daily report to the DEO. It is from these strong rooms that the EVMs are taken to counting centres, usually one per district, for the counting of votes. Again, the process is to be conducted under videography and with the knowledge of the candidates’ representatives. Similarly, for postal ballots, which are used by service voters, and categories like those above 85 years and persons with disabilities, the protocols have been defined by the ECI. The RO is supposed to keep all postal ballots received by the post office in separate envelopes for each day. These are to be kept in a strongroom for postal ballots at the RO headquarters.