TMC and BJP Clash Over EVM Security in West Bengal Pre-Count

Key Takeaways

• TMC reports a 17-minute blacked-out CCTV monitor at a North 24 Parganas EVM storage site.
• BJP alleges unauthorized early opening of strongrooms and physical attempts to breach barriers in Burdwan.
• Election Commission officials confirm external power disconnection and launch investigations into both incidents.
• Candidates from rival parties accuse each other of lax security protocols at critical EVM EVM strongrooms facilities.
• Tension escalates as both parties demand immediate footage release and strict legal action against responsible officials.

Narrative Body

KOLKATA: In the final hours before the decisive vote counting for the Bengal assembly elections, political tensions in West Bengal reached a boiling point as rivals Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) engaged in a heated dispute over the integrity of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) storage facilities. On Saturday, just a day before the May 4 count, both parties flagged serious security lapses, specifically highlighting incidents of CCTV footage tampering and unauthorized access at strongrooms housing critical voting equipment across several constituencies.

The conflict ignited at Barasat Government College in the North 24 Parganas district, where TMC workers and candidates staged a protest after monitoring displays went dark. According to reports, the CCTV monitors at the strongroom, which stores EVMs from the Barasat, Habra, Ashoknagar, and Deganga constituencies, went completely blank for 17 minutes between 8:05 am and 8:22 am. Suspecting deliberate sabotage, TMC workers confronted officials, demanding that the full footage be made public and that strict action be taken against those responsible for disabling the surveillance system. Narayan Goswami, a TMC candidate from Ashoknagar, challenged the official narrative, stating, “The ARO showed me footage sent to the magistrate where the cameras were operational. But if someone switched off the TV, EC should have taken immediate action. We need to know what happened.”

Election Commission officials responded swiftly to the allegations at the Barasat site. Additional Returning Officer Abhijit Das clarified that while the feed was initially reported as invisible, the SDO arrived by 8:20 am. “It was found that the external monitor had been powered off. Once switched on, the feed resumed... It appears the switch was turned off from the outside. An investigation is underway,” Das stated, confirming that the hardware itself was not destroyed but rather disconnected, a move that TMC argues points to internal negligence or complicity.

Meanwhile, the BJP escalated the narrative by citing two separate incidents in Salt Lake and Burdwan, alleging systematic breaches of protocol. Sharadwat Mukherjee, BJP’s Bidhannagar candidate, alleged that the strongroom at Bidhannagar was opened multiple times on Friday without official notification, despite being scheduled to open on Saturday. He contacted the returning officer to address these unauthorized entries, while Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate Soumyajit Raha confirmed that a formal complaint had been lodged with the Election Commission.

The dispute took a more physical turn in the Burdwan region, where BJP’s national spokesperson Amit Malviya took to social media platform X to allege physical intimidation. “At UIT, an attempt was made by a TMC goon to scale the compound walls and gain access to a strongroom housing EVMs,” Malviya wrote. He noted that the incident was flagged by BJP candidate Sanjay Das, raising concerns about the intent behind such aggressive actions. Malviya emphasized the stakes, noting that the facility housed EVMs from five crucial constituencies: Bardhaman Uttar, Bardhaman Dakshin, Galsi, Ausgram, and Bhatar.

In Kolkata, the security concerns shifted to procedural exclusions. Shashi Panja, Trinamool’s Shyampukur candidate, visited the strongroom at the Netaji Indoor Stadium on Saturday, only to be initially denied entry by guards who insisted that personnel already inside must exit first. Panja reported that she was only allowed in after police clarification. More critically, she flagged the absence of CCTV coverage at the site, claiming officials told her cameras would be installed “shortly.” Additionally, Panja noted that when postal ballot trunks for seven constituencies arrived, no representatives from any political party were present to oversee the process, further fueling suspicions of opaque handling of electoral materials.

Bengal Electoral Security Under Scrutiny

The clash over EVM integrity in West Bengal highlights deepening distrust between major political entities ahead of a pivotal democratic exercise. The specific allegations of powered-off monitors and unauthorized strongroom entries suggest that technical glitches and procedural violations are being weaponized as political tools. As investigations proceed, the lack of immediate, transparent evidence from election authorities may exacerbate fears of manipulation. If these security lapses are not addressed with rigorous, third-party verified audits, the legitimacy of the upcoming vote count could face sustained legal and public challenges, potentially destabilizing the post-election political landscape in the state.