‘SC should order release of CCTV footage of WB vote counting’

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to take immediate cognisance of the poll process and make CCTV footage of counting public.“When court proceedings can be telecast live, why can’t counting of votes be live? We demand that the Supreme Court should take note of what is happening and provide live CCTV footage of the counting process in West Bengal to the people of the country,” Akhilesh said.Akhilesh’s comments came a day after TMC national general secretary and MP Abhishek Banerjee demanded CCTV footage of counting centres from where his party representatives were thrown out by central forces while the counting was underway and the results were yet to be announced.Akhilesh said similar misuse of central and state forces was on display in UP in the state polls in 2017 and 2022 and the Lok Sabha elections in 2024. He credited his party cadres and voters with standing up against the central forces to cast their votes. “I can imagine the magnitude of struggle and attack that ‘Didi’ faced. In UP we have faced them, suffered, examined them closely and understood them,” he said.