Bengal SEC orders re-poll in 690 booths today

Kolkata: As sporadic protests and incidents of post-poll violence continued to plague West Bengal, the State Election Commission announced on Sunday that repolling will be held on July 10 in 696 booths where voting for the rural elections has been declared void.

In Saturday's violence scarred panchayat polls, people had cast their votes in 61,636 booths for 2.06 lakh candidates who were in the fray for elections to the fiercely contested 73,887 seats in the three-tier panchayat system in the state.

The SEC, which held a meeting on Sunday evening, went through reports of votetampering and violence which affected polling in many places, and passed the order, an official said.

At least 4 central police force personnel will be posted at each of these booths where re-polling has been ordered, he told PTI.

Among the districts where repolling has been announced, Murshidabad has the highest number of booths at 174, followed by Malda with 109. No repolling has been ordered in any booth in three districts of Jhargram, Kalimpong and Darjeeling. (PTI)