West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Saturday told the party’s canvassing agents during a meeting that it would secure more than 200 of the 294 Assembly seats, two days before the votes polled were to be counted.
The two leaders, who held a virtual meeting with counting agents for the 291 Assembly seats, also told them that they should regularly update the command on the prevailing situation at the counting centers and should remain there till the end of the exercise.
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The Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantri Morcha (BGPM) led by Anit Thapa contested the remaining three seats in Darjeeling Hills.
The council elections were held in two stages on April 23 and 29, and the counting of votes is scheduled to take place on May 4.
The Prime Minister, who asserted that “the TMC will win at least more than 200 seats if not more”, also asked the counting agents not to give importance to the “propaganda and campaigning by the BJP and its allies” about the number of seats they will secure.
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She said the TMC would stand by party activists, including counting agents, who were allegedly assaulted by central forces while voting or campaigning.
“We will ensure that party workers who were attacked by central forces for standing up against their brutality will receive financial reward,” she said.
“Don’t give importance to the numerous opinion polls being broadcast on TV channels and social media,” she told the agents, according to a senior TMC leader.
The Transitional Military Council said that such polls have no value. The Prime Minister said: “The polls for 2021 and 2024 were far from reality. I believe that most of these polls are aimed at influencing the stock market.”
She also said that if any TMC candidate loses a seat “by a margin of 200-300 votes”, counting agents should insist on a recount.
“No one should leave the counting centers until the process is over,” the Prime Minister said.
She also called for monitoring party cadres near electrical transformers, citing a “power outage” during vote counting in Nandigram for the 2021 elections.
The TMC chief said counting agents should carry food items prepared at home.
Abhishek Banerjee, who also interacted with the counting agents virtually, asked them to insist on a recount of votes, especially for postal ballots, in case the TMC candidates are defeated by a narrow margin.
“All unusual activities inside counting centres, like sudden power outage at counting center in Nandigram in 2021, should be immediately reported to senior party officers,” he said.
The virtual meeting, which started at 4 p.m., lasted nearly two hours.
Virtual interactions were a regular feature during the review of electoral rolls, with Abhishek Banerjee holding multiple meetings with booth-level agents between November and February.
However, such meetings were not held by Abhishek Banerjee or Mamata Banerjee after the Assembly elections were announced in March, but by leaders like Mahua Moitra.
Saturday’s briefing also covered key aspects of the counting process, including the number of rounds and protocols that will be followed once the electronic voting machines (EVMs) are taken out of the strong rooms and opened.
Despite expressing confidence of a “landslide victory”, Mamata Banerjee has repeatedly expressed her fears of “malpractices and manipulation in the VAS ahead of results day”.
The two vote counting centers in Kolkata witnessed high drama late on Thursday evening, after TMC leaders alleged lack of transparency and possible malpractice in the strong rooms housing the sealed electronic voting machines for the Assembly polls, which concluded on April 29.
Mamata Banerjee herself reached the counting center of Sakhawat Memorial School on Thursday and stayed there for about four hours.
Manoj Agarwal, West Bengal’s chief electoral officer, had earlier asserted that there was no scope for any irregularities to be committed at the counting centres.
During the meeting, Abhishek Banerjee also targeted the Election Commission, alleging that it was working in favor of the BJP. He stressed that legal action would be taken against observers accused of acting in an “unconstitutional” manner.
He claimed that the BJP was not confident about forming the government in West Bengal, and accused it of spending millions of rupees on exit poll forecasts.
