TMC Seeks Supreme Court Intervention for Equal Representation in West Bengal Vote Counting

Counting of votes for the West Bengal Assembly elections on Monday, May 4. The Trinamool Congress had moved the Supreme Court seeking that not only central government employees but also state government employees be accommodated during the counting of votes. A special bench of Justice P S Narasimha and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was set up to hear the matter on Saturday. The TMC told the court today that officers cannot be appointed from a pool (of central government employees) alone. The counting should have an equal number of officers from the state and central government cadres. The bench directed that the pool be created as per the Election Commission's circular of April 13, that is, pooling of officers from the Centre and the state.