The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC on Thursday claimed that the BJP and the Election Commission (EC) were "opening ballot boxes" in the Kolkata strongroom ahead of the official results date of May 4.
Declaring that the ballot boxes could not be opened without the relevant party stakeholders present, two TMC leaders—Kunal Ghosh and Shashi Panja—staged a dharna outside the Netaji Indoor Stadium.
“Party workers and supporters had been present outside the strongroom till 3:30 PM. Suddenly, an email was sent informing that the strongroom would be opened again at 4 PM. We contacted our workers and they said they had left. We then rushed here. Now we are not being allowed to enter. BJP is being invited,” Ghosh told reporters.
They also questioned how the Chief Election Officer allegedly claimed that nothing was happening inside, while "ballot papers (were) being moved inside".
The party has also released CCTV footage on X allegedly showing the ballot box tampering.
CM Banerjee on Thursday reached the strongroom at the Sakhawat Memorial School and went inside with her election agent to guard the EVMs, exercising her right as a candidate.
However, the presence of a TMC-linked vehicle outside this strongroom allegedly led to the saffron party's workers blocking it and organising a protest outside the strongroom.
Notably, the TMC supremo had earlier warned party workers of possible dirty tactics by the saffron party.
In fact, CM Banerjee urged them, in a video on X, not to leave the counting tables until "I hold a press conference and declare".
“They plan to swap EVMs ... they might change data in computers, giving our numbers to BJP and BJP's to us, I myself will go to the counting hall, I can do that as a candidate. You have gone through so much. Please bear slightly more to save Bengal,” she added.
The CM had also rejected predictions by the exit polls, most of which claimed that the BJP would win in the state, with the TMC close behind.
However, only Peoples Pulse is said to have predicted the opposite—that the TMC would end up sweeping the state to reinstate Mamata Banerjee at the top for a fourth term.