WB Police junks Suvendu’s postal ballot collection claim

Kolkata: The state police have dismissed allegations by BJP leader and Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari that reserve officers were instructed to collect postal ballots and route them through a police welfare organisation, asserting that there is no scope for such activity.

In a post on X on March 8, Adhikari alleged that the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Jhargram Police District had ordered the joint secretary of the district police welfare committee to handle the election process for police personnel, including the collection of Postal Ballots (PB) and Election Duty (ED) votes. He claimed this was illegal.

Adhikari further alleged that a conspiracy had been hatched whereby police reserve officers were instructed to collect postal ballots and send them through the police welfare organisation.

Rejecting the allegations, the state police on Tuesday said in a post on its official X handle that postal ballots are submitted at the Postal Voting Centre (PVC), leaving no possibility for them to be taken out or collected by reserve officers.

In the post, the police described the allegations as false.

“The allegation raised is strongly refuted. There is no scope for collection of Postal Ballots (PB) from police personnel by Reserve Officers. PBs are issued only by the Presiding Officer at the Postal Voting Centre (PVC). After casting their vote, the PB is sealed by the voter in the prescribed envelope and dropped in the designated drop box at the PVC. The entire process is videographed,” a portion of

the post stated.