Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly and BJP candidate for Bhabanipur, expressed worry about officers sharing their counting duty information with departmental organizations and associations. Adhikari highlighted the potential risks this could pose to the impartiality of the upcoming counting process. He emphasized that such actions could lead to undue political influence, threaten neutrality, and exert pressure on officers during the crucial counting hours.
Adhikari presented screenshots of WhatsApp messages as evidence to support his claims. He called the disclosure of election duty details a serious breach of election protocols and urged the Election Commission to intervene. Adhikari requested strict directives to prevent officers from revealing their assigned counting duties to any external entities and suggested an investigation into organizations collecting such sensitive data.
The counting of votes for the 293 Assembly constituencies in West Bengal, which underwent elections in two phases, is scheduled for Monday across 77 counting centers in the state.
