TMC candidates Kunal Ghosh and Shashi Panja reiterated the allegations and staged a protest outside Khudiram Anushilan Kendra in central Kolkata on Thursday evening.
Kunal Ghosh, who is also the TMC spokesperson, said on Friday that party workers and poll aspirants were keeping a tight vigil at the counting centres, where the EVMs are kept in strong rooms.
A senior police officer said heightened security arrangements have been made at Khudiram Anushilan Kendra, the counting center for several assembly seats in north and east Kolkata, which houses strong EVM rooms.
“Additional CAPF and armed police forces have also been deployed under the supervision of an additional commissioner and a deputy commissioner of police,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Kolkata, Rupesh Kumar, told reporters after visiting the area.
Expressing concern that unauthorized movement may occur when some of the postal ballots are brought in in the evening, Ghosh said polling agents and party candidates have been alerted to the issue.
Minister Shashi Panja, who also arrived at the Khudiram Anushilan Kendra in the morning, asserted that there should be “transparency”.
Ghosh told reporters on Friday that though they had seen some movement in a strong room suspected of storing postal ballots, there was no such movement on Friday morning.
Security forces were keeping a tight vigil in and around counting centers in Kolkata and other districts where the EVM machines used in the West Bengal assembly elections are kept, an official said here.
The Electoral Commission earlier rejected the allegation regarding the handling of polled materials at the centre, stating that polling officials were engaged in the task of distributing postal ballots according to due process and the strongrooms remained secure.
(With data from PTI)
