CPI-M demands repoll in over 300 Bengal booths

New Delhi, May 7 (IANS) The CPI-M has demanded repoll in over 300 polling booths in five parliamentary constituencies of West Bengal where voting was held Wednesday, alleging "rigging" by the ruling TMC.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission (EC), claiming "that the rigging and violence in the election held today have completely distorted the process of conducting free and fair polls".

"For the restoration of the people's faith in the electoral process, it is essential that repoll is conducted in the booths where rigging has taken place," the party said in a statement.

The party has given the EC a list of 301 booths spread over the five constituencies of Jhargram, Medinipur, Bankura, Bishnupur and Asansol.

The majority of complaints are of booth capturing by the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) workers, intimidating voters to get them to vote for the ruling party, and turning away CPI-M's poll agents from the booths.

A CPI-M delegation comprising politburo members Sitaram Yechury and S.R.P. Pillai met EC officials later in the day and demanded "that appropriate steps should be taken to identify and apprehend those who are responsible for such grave malpractices and the consequent gross distortion of the election process".

The party had made similar complaints regarding alleged "rigging" in the polls held April 30 but the EC dismissed those.

Seventeen of the total 42 seats in the state will go to polls in the last round May 12.