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Why Mamata Banerjee Is Pressing the EVM Panic Button Before Bengal Results: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was seen in an utterly unusual role on April 30, 2026. She was seen standing with her hands folded in a nine-minute video of nine minutes, insisting that Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers protect EVM strongrooms 24 hours a day.
After a few hours, she braved the rain to go to a Kolkata strongroom, claiming that the BJP was conspiring to commit “EVM tampering and swapping.”
The surprise? It’s the same Mamata Banerjee, whose party has been mostly silent about EVM credibility concerns even when Congress president Rahul Gandhi ran an aggressive campaign to question EVMs. What did she do differently? What’s the reason, and why is it happening so fast, just days before the count of the votes on May 4, 2019?
Mamata’s Dramatic Strongroom Visit: What Happened?
In the evening of April 30th, Mamata Banerjee arrived in the EVM strongroom at Sakhawat Memorial Government Girls’ High School in South Kolkata—the center for counting her personal Bhabanipur Assembly constituency—at approximately 8:15 PM.
She claimed she had seen “suspicious activity” on CCTV footage and also alleged irregularities at many locations, including the Netaji Indoor Stadium/Khudiram Anushilan Kendra, in which she claimed the voting machines were not handled with TMC representatives.
Mamata was trapped for more than forty-four hours in the building and returned at midnight. She warned that any attempt to tamper with the system could result in a “life and death” fight, as well as stated the fact that “victory was certain.”
She also claimed that the centrally armed forces initially blocked her entry—that she, being a potential candidate, is legally entitled -she also claimed that the system was “one-sided.”
TMC Leaders Stage Sit-In Protests
The senior TMC officials Kunal Ghosh and Shashi Panja held protests in a sit-in outside a different Kolkata strongroom, accusing the facility of irregularities in the process, including workers being told to leave the premises and being reopened. The TMC also posted CCTV footage to prove its claims of tampering.
The West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal rejected all claims and stated the fact that EVM alteration or exchange during storage or transport will be “near impossible” due to several layers of ECI security.
TMC’s History on EVM Concerns: A Party That Stayed Silent
The TMC’s latest alarm is noteworthy due to the fact that the party has always been a distance from the wider EVM debate.
2021 Bengal Elections
In the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls, the TMC made a few isolated complaints regarding EVM glitches and sudden decreases in voting percentages reported. They were purely technical and were never escalated into a continuous campaign of questioning EVM credibility.
The Rahul Gandhi Divide
The Congress, along with Rahul Gandhi, repeatedly called for an end to voting on paper or a large-scale VVPAT-based verification, particularly after elections that were lost; the TMC took a different route. The TMC’s second-in-command, Abhishek Banerjee, and Mamata Banerjee even went as far as to denounce sweeping EVM concerns.
On December 20, 2025, Abhishek Banerjee referred to such statements as “random statements” and challenged those who disagreed to “show how EVMs are hacked.” He further argued that “Vote Chori” is being carried out through manipulating elections, not EVMs.
The TMC even aligned itself with the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference’s Omar Abdullah in distancing its stance from Congress’s anti-EVM position—causing visible divisions within the INDIA group.
So, Why Is TMC Suddenly Raising the EVM Alarm?
A variety of strategic and political considerations are causing this change.
1. Unfavourable Exit Polls
Multiple exit polls published after the second and final round of the vote on April 29 predicted the possibility of a solid BJP result throughout Bengal, which is a trend Mamata dismisses as a “demoralization tactic.” In raising concerns about EVM tampering before the time results are announced and declared, the TMC can preemptively raise the possibility of questioning any negative result and create the basis for possible legal challenges or street protests.
2. Mobilising the Core Vote Base
The election is being framed as a fight against the apparent “BJP-EC nexus.” Mamata is invigorating TMC’s supporters and its cadre. The late-night gathering she holds at the TMC’s strongroom—even in the rain—strengthens that image of being a leader who is street fighting, who is defending the voters’ mandate.
3. Pressuring the Election Commission
The EVM narrative exerts stress on ECI and the central armies to grant TMC greater access to powerful rooms. Although there is no evidence of actual manipulation, the narrative of vigilance has the potential to shape the public’s perception of events and also purchase political space following outcomes.
4. Narrative Insurance
The allegations can also function as a counter-narrative device: If the BJP gets the majority of seats TMC may argue this occurred through foul play rather than a real shift in sentiment among voters.
Read Also: Exit Poll Results 2026: A State-by-State Breakdown of India’s High-Stakes Assembly Elections
BJP’s Rebuttal: A Calculated Distraction?
BJP leaders such as Suvendu Adhikari, Mamata Banerjee’s opponent in Bhabanipur — have strongly critiqued TMC’s EVM claims as a “classic deflection tactic.” The BJP claims that, in the midst of more than a decade of being in power and a decade of rule, the TMC has been confronted with real anti-incumbency. They are making pre-emptive excuses instead of embracing the reality of the situation.
Can EVMs Actually Be Tampered With?
Experts in the field of elections, along with the ECI, have always maintained that EVM alteration in transportation or storage will be very difficult to accomplish due to the many layers of security that are in place:
- EVMs are housed in secure strongrooms that have CCTV surveillance
- Representatives of political parties are allowed to attend
- Machines are subject to multiple-stage checks before and after the polling
There is no independent investigation that has proved claims of EVMs altering during Indian elections.
Conclusion:
The question of whether Mamata Banerjee’s EVM offensive is a legitimate security measure, or it is a deliberate strategy for political gain, or an indication of anxiety over the results, will only be apparent after the vote is counted on May 4, 2026.
Mamata Banerjee, what is certain is that Mamata’s TMC has spent years distancing itself from the EVM debate to benefit politically from it, no matter the outcome. A victory is a sign of her determination, and a loss allows her to lodge a grievance.
The results will be a testimony to the results. The political process around them has already started.
