Fresh voting began in West Bengal's Falta Assembly constituency on May 21 after the Election Commission ordered a constituency-wide repoll over electoral offences reported during the April 29 vote. The Indian Express reported that all 285 booths were covered, with polling scheduled from 7 am to 6 pm and counting on May 24.
Two days before polling, Trinamool Congress candidate Jahangir Khan announced that he was stepping away from the contest. At his press conference, he linked the decision to peace and development in Falta and referred to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari's proposed development package. The TMC said the announcement was his personal decision.
TMC MP Saayoni Ghosh said Khan had not consulted the party and alleged that threats and post-poll pressure had affected the political environment. BJP candidate Debangshu Panda, meanwhile, had alleged interference with voting and sought fresh polling. These competing allegations formed the immediate background to the repeat exercise.
Contemporary NDTV reporting clarified that six candidates remained in the election and Khan's name stayed on the voting machines despite his announcement. His decision to stop participating politically was therefore different from formal removal of a candidate from the ballot. Voters could still select the TMC candidate.
In the later result published on May 24, the Election Commission's candidate table showed Panda winning with 149,666 votes. CPI(M) candidate Sambhu Nath Kurmi received 40,645 and Congress candidate Abdur Razzak Molla 10,084. Khan remained listed as the TMC candidate and received 7,783 votes, confirming that his name had continued in the electoral process.
The commission's table also recorded two independent candidates and 784 votes for none of the above. Panda's reported margin over Kurmi was 109,021. These later figures describe the outcome of the repoll, not information available when voting opened on May 21; they also resolve the misleading suggestion that the ballot itself contained only three candidates.
