Mamata Banerjee accused unidentified actors in the early hours of Monday of disrupting security around election strong rooms in West Bengal just hours before vote counting was set to begin. She said she was getting reports of phased load-shedding, CCTV shutdowns and vehicles moving in and out of strong rooms in several constituencies.
Banerjee said she was hearing complaints from Serampore in Hooghly, Krishnanagar in Nadia, Ausgram in Burdwan and Kshudiram Anushilan Kendra in Kolkata. She urged people to stay vigilant, watch through the night, file complaints and demand CCTV footage if anything looked suspicious.
The chief minister also called on party workers to stay awake all night and guard the strong rooms, saying the alleged actions were being carried out at the behest of the BJP. Her post came hours before the assembly poll results in West Bengal, where the count was set alongside results in four other states and one Union Territory.
The warning landed against a backdrop of earlier complaints during polling. During the second phase of voting in West Bengal, the Election Commission received at least 77 complaints tied to alleged EVM tampering, including 32 from Falta, 13 from Magrahat and 29 from Diamond Harbour. Strong rooms are the places where votes are stored before counting, which is why any allegation around their security cuts straight to the credibility of the result.
Banerjee has raised similar allegations before, and her party had earlier accused ballot tampering in Kolkata. That history gives her latest post added force, but it also leaves a blunt question hanging over the count: whether the security complaints reflect a real breach or a familiar pre-result political charge that will now have to be tested in public view.
