<p>Kolkata: With both sides awaiting the assembly election results with bated breath, the security of the ‘strongrooms’, where Electronic Voting Machines are stored after the two-phase polling, remained at the centre of the war of words between the ruling Trinamool Congress and its principal challenger, the Bharatiya Janata Party, in West Bengal on Friday.</p><p>The TMC stated that any attempt to tamper with the mandate of the people through technical sabotage would not be tolerated.</p><p>A day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee warned about a plan to change the EVMs before the counting of votes on May 4 to ensure an edge for the BJP, a delegation of her TMC went to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal, and registered a strong objection regarding “the repeated and highly suspicious disruptions in CCTV surveillance” at multiple locations housing the polled EVMs and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail systems (VVPATs).</p>.West Bengal Assembly Elections 2026 | 60-day prohibitory order in Kolkata's central business district from May 3.<p>After Mamata visited Sakhawat Memorial School housing the EVMs and the VVPATs of Bhabanipur on Thursday, Suvendu Adhikari, the BJP’s bet against her in the constituency, also visited the same ‘strongroom’. “What she is doing is nothing short of 'dramabazi' (theatrics). She rushed to the counting centre in a vehicle with facilities like a washroom and stayed there for four hours. Even if she wants to change the outcome, that will never happen,” Adhikari, the de facto chief ministerial candidate of the BJP, said.</p><p>The Kolkata Police promulgated prohibitory orders for 60 days from May 3 in some areas of the city, even as security around the ‘strongrooms’ was enhanced, with the paramilitary forces being deployed and armoured vehicles being stationed.</p><p>“The CCTVs of the strongrooms are not working properly in several places. So, we demand that the EC take proper care of this. Why is the process not fully transparent?” Shashi Panja, a senior TMC leader, said.</p><p>Panja and Kunal Ghosh, the TMC candidates in Beleghata and Shyampukur, had staged a sit-in protest at the Khudiram Anushilan Kendra, where the EVMs and the VVPATs of their constituencies are stored, on Thursday, alleging suspicious movement inside the place.</p><p>The EC officials said that the EVMS used for polling in seven assembly constituencies had been kept at the strongrooms inside the Khudiram Anushilan Kendra, and they all had been duly closed and sealed in the presence of the candidates, their election agents, as well as the general observer after completion of the polling.</p><p>While all the strongrooms containing polled EVMs had remained safely secured and sealed, another strongroom in the same premises had been designated for storing postal ballots, and some officials had been arranging them, they said.</p><p>The TMC demanded that the EC was violating its own guidelines, which clearly mandated 24×7 uninterrupted CCTV surveillance with continuous recording and access for authorised party representatives.</p><p>The TMC demanded immediate compilation of a complete report of all instances of CCTV malfunction, disruption, or downtime across every strong room in the state. It asked the EC to provide full, unedited CCTV recordings along with detailed logs showing all periods of interruption and to restore all CCTV systems to full, uninterrupted functionality with real-time monitoring and accountability for every lapse.</p><p>Mamata’s party asked for continuous and unrestricted access to the surveillance feed for authorised representatives as per ECI protocols.</p>
<p>Kolkata: With both sides awaiting the assembly election results with bated breath, the security of the ‘strongrooms’, where Electronic Voting Machines are stored after the two-phase polling, remained at the centre of the war of words between the ruling Trinamool Congress and its principal challenger, the Bharatiya Janata Party, in West Bengal on Friday.</p><p>The TMC stated that any attempt to tamper with the mandate of the people through technical sabotage would not be tolerated.</p><p>A day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee warned about a plan to change the EVMs before the counting of votes on May 4 to ensure an edge for the BJP, a delegation of her TMC went to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal, and registered a strong objection regarding “the repeated and highly suspicious disruptions in CCTV surveillance” at multiple locations housing the polled EVMs and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail systems (VVPATs).</p>.West Bengal Assembly Elections 2026 | 60-day prohibitory order in Kolkata's central business district from May 3.<p>After Mamata visited Sakhawat Memorial School housing the EVMs and the VVPATs of Bhabanipur on Thursday, Suvendu Adhikari, the BJP’s bet against her in the constituency, also visited the same ‘strongroom’. “What she is doing is nothing short of 'dramabazi' (theatrics). She rushed to the counting centre in a vehicle with facilities like a washroom and stayed there for four hours. Even if she wants to change the outcome, that will never happen,” Adhikari, the de facto chief ministerial candidate of the BJP, said.</p><p>The Kolkata Police promulgated prohibitory orders for 60 days from May 3 in some areas of the city, even as security around the ‘strongrooms’ was enhanced, with the paramilitary forces being deployed and armoured vehicles being stationed.</p><p>“The CCTVs of the strongrooms are not working properly in several places. So, we demand that the EC take proper care of this. Why is the process not fully transparent?” Shashi Panja, a senior TMC leader, said.</p><p>Panja and Kunal Ghosh, the TMC candidates in Beleghata and Shyampukur, had staged a sit-in protest at the Khudiram Anushilan Kendra, where the EVMs and the VVPATs of their constituencies are stored, on Thursday, alleging suspicious movement inside the place.</p><p>The EC officials said that the EVMS used for polling in seven assembly constituencies had been kept at the strongrooms inside the Khudiram Anushilan Kendra, and they all had been duly closed and sealed in the presence of the candidates, their election agents, as well as the general observer after completion of the polling.</p><p>While all the strongrooms containing polled EVMs had remained safely secured and sealed, another strongroom in the same premises had been designated for storing postal ballots, and some officials had been arranging them, they said.</p><p>The TMC demanded that the EC was violating its own guidelines, which clearly mandated 24×7 uninterrupted CCTV surveillance with continuous recording and access for authorised party representatives.</p><p>The TMC demanded immediate compilation of a complete report of all instances of CCTV malfunction, disruption, or downtime across every strong room in the state. It asked the EC to provide full, unedited CCTV recordings along with detailed logs showing all periods of interruption and to restore all CCTV systems to full, uninterrupted functionality with real-time monitoring and accountability for every lapse.</p><p>Mamata’s party asked for continuous and unrestricted access to the surveillance feed for authorised representatives as per ECI protocols.</p>
