Ranit Kr. Singh , Kolkata - A major political row erupted in West Bengal after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Debangshu Panda secured a landslide victory in the Falta assembly constituency repoll, winning by over 1 lakh votes. According to the final Election Commission data, Panda clinched the seat with 1,49,666 votes, defeating his closest rival, CPI(M)’s Sambhu Nath Kurmi, who polled 40,645 votes, while Congress candidate Abdul Razzak Molla trailed distantly with 10,084 votes. The high-stakes repoll was conducted across all 285 booths on May 21 under tight security, drawing over 87 per cent voter turnout after the initial April 29 voting was scrapped due to widespread allegations of EVM tampering and irregularities.
Following the declaration of results on Sunday, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Abhishek Banerjee targeted the Election Commission of India (ECI), alleging "glaring inconsistencies" in the unprecedented speed of vote counting. Banerjee claimed that while only two to four counting rounds were completed by 3:30 pm during the state-wide result declaration on May 4, all 21 rounds in Falta were wrapped up by the same time on Sunday. He further accused the poll panel of turning a blind eye to the vandalization of party offices and the forced displacement of over 1,000 TMC workers while the Model Code of Conduct was actively in force.
In a sharp counter-offensive on social media, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari hailed the mandate, describing the TMC's defeat as "just a beginning of rejection" for a party he characterized as a principle-less "mafia company." Adhikari alleged that the TMC had previously turned the democratic process into a farce to secure massive leads through extortion and state machinery, adding that reality surfaced once citizens finally regained their freedom to vote. The political battlefield escalated further as the TMC candidate had already pulled out of the contest prior to the repoll, leaving the seat entirely in the hands of the opposition.
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