Falta: The Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Debangshu Panda has established a dominant lead of more than 69,000 votes over his closest rival from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) following 15 rounds of counting on Sunday during the repoll for West Bengal’s Falta Assembly constituency. Data released by the Election Commission indicates that the counting process has progressed securely through a significant portion of the total scheduled rounds.
Out of the 21 scheduled rounds of counting, Panda secured 1,03,089 votes, locking in a comfortable margin of 69,673 votes against CPI(M) nominee Sambhu Nath Kurmi, who managed to secure 33,416 votes. Trailing further behind in third place is Congress candidate Abdur Razzak Molla with 9,089 votes. Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress representative Jahangir Khan found himself in fourth place with 5,134 votes after pulling out of the active race just 48 hours prior to the voting day, citing the regional development assurances made by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari as his reason for stepping aside. The TMC leadership quickly distanced itself from the sudden development, clarifying that it was entirely Khan’s personal choice.
The comprehensive repoll across all 285 polling booths in the South 24 Parganas district constituency took place on May 21 after the initial April 29 voting rounds were completely invalidated. The Election Commission had ordered the countermand following serious complaints regarding electronic voting machine tampering, including the bizarre use of strong adhesive tapes and perfume-like substances on the equipment, alongside the manipulation of live web camera security feeds at multiple stations.
To restore absolute electoral transparency and safety during the repoll, the Commission deployed roughly 35 companies of central security forces, resulting in a peaceful process that recorded a massive voter turnout of over 87 per cent. The final counting process commenced under strict multi-tier security cordons early Sunday morning, effectively drawing a conclusion to one of the most heavily monitored assembly contest revotes in the state’s recent political timeline.
