KOLKATA — Expressing shock that the political operatives who rigged an election last week were still willing to rig an election this week, the Election Commission has ordered fresh polling in 15 booths to correct the repoll of 285 booths that was meant to correct the original April 29 election.

The initial Falta polling was scrapped entirely after officials cited "severe electoral offences and subversion of democratic process," including covered EVM symbols and the systemic harassment of opposition agents. However, following the 285-booth repoll—which saw the challenger win by a 1,09,021-vote margin in a former ruling party stronghold—officials were immediately confronted on May 4 with fresh allegations of ballot boxes being opened in secret.

"The April 29 election was deeply compromised, which is why we mandated a clean, transparent repoll," said a Commission spokesperson, reviewing formal complaints regarding what the losing party termed "glaring inconsistencies" in the counting process. "We are now investigating the subversion of that clean, transparent repoll, and have ordered a 15-booth re-repoll to ensure those inconsistencies are properly replaced with new ones."

At press time, local party workers were requesting clarification from the Commission on whether the upcoming re-re-poll meant they needed to intimidate a completely new set of polling agents, or if they could just reuse the ones they had already threatened.