A Trinamool Congress (TMC) party candidate allegedly ate paper ballots to avoid election defeat in a Bengal district, a Communist Party of India (CPI-M) candidate alleged, according to ABP.
TMC candidate Mahadev Mati denied CPI-M candidate Rabindranath Majumdar’s claims he ate the ballots, the outlet noted.
Mati reportedly said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was attempting to rig the vote count and claimed he won the polls by 46 votes. (RELATED: ‘Dark Clouds’: Indian Prime Minister Modi Warns Of China Threat In Speech To US Congress)
‘Won By 4 Votes, But TMC Man Swallowed Ballot Papers’: CPI-M’s Claim After Losing Habra In Bengal Rural Pollhttps://t.co/fniPa20Lq3
Source : “ABP Live” via Dailyhunt— saloni gupta (@saloni202020) July 12, 2023
Majumda reportedly said he won the election by four votes before being informed a recount was required to officiate the results. He alleged that’s when Mati arrived at the counting center and ate almost half of the ballots, per the outlet.
The TMC reportedly won the majority of seats. They now reportedly have 18,606 gram panchayat seats out of 27,985 declared seats. The party with the second most seats is the BJP with 4,482, ABP noted.
There are 63,229 gram panchayat seats up for grabs in West Bengal, according to ABP. The BJP is reportedly leading in 2,419 undeclared races.
There has reportedly been violence in India at the panchayat polls. There were reportedly 15 deaths Saturday out of 33 total poll-related deaths this year, per the outlet. Approximately 60% of deaths have reportedly been people from the ruling TMC party.
Vote tampering allegations caused the SEC to re-poll 696 seats Monday.