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Bengal

BJP's name shows on EVM during mock poll at Barrackpore

Kolkata: Taking strong exception to the name of the party written under the symbol of BJP during a mock poll at Barrackpore, the Trinamool Congress has lodged a complaint with the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Bengal.

TMC had raised questions over the act as the name of no other party is written under its respective symbol, except the saffron party. The ruling party alleged that BJP is trying to influence the Commission through such an act.

The anomaly was perceived during the mock poll at the office of the SDO of Barrackpore on Friday morning. Soon, the polling agents of TMC who were present during the mock poll protested and started agitating.

The mock poll was stopped and a complaint was lodged with the returning officer. Congress also joined the protest along with TMC.

It may be mentioned that Arjun Singh is contesting on the ticket of the saffron party from the Barrackpore seat, while Dinesh Trivedi is the candidate for Trinamool Congress.

Later in the day, a delegation of TMC led by its secretary general Partha Chatterjee, along with senior TMC leaders Tapas Roy, Derek O Brien, Subrata Bakshi and Subhasish Chakraborty met CEO Ariz Aftab and lodged a complaint in this regard.

"We have seen during the elections till date that only the symbol of a political party is present on the EVM. The name of any political party does not feature on it. If the name of one party is written then it should have been so for other parties as well. It seems that a political party is trying to use technology with an evil intention. We have urged the Commission to take immediate action so that such things are not reflected during the elections," Chatterjee said.

Barrackpore, along with six other Lok Sabha constituencies namely Bongaon, Howrah, Uluberia, Sreerampore, Hooghly and Arambagh goes to polls on May 6, the fifth phase of the ongoing seven phase elections.

TMC district president, North 24-Parganas, Jyotipriya Mallick said: "We are witnessing strange things during the elections this year. How can the name of a political party be written under the symbol? The act is illegal and BJP has done this with malafide intentions. They have realised that they will be defeated and so they are doing such things out of desperation."

TMC has also pointed out in its complaint that similar things had also occurred during the mock poll at Raiganj, where the elections have already been held.

A senior official of the CEO's office said that they have forwarded the report of the District Magistrate in this regard to the Election Commission of India for necessary action.

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