Trinamul leader and minister Partha Chatterjee on the presence of outsiders in Salt Lake on polling day: “You are saying outsiders entered the polling booth but how can journalists go inside the polling booth? I know the law. Journalists cannot enter the polling booth.”

The “authority letter” (sample right) issued to journalists “by order of the West Bengal state election commission” and signed by the district magistrate, North 24-Parganas, reads: “The State Election Commission hereby authorises the entry/re-entry of (reporter/photographer’s name) representing (newspaper’s name) inside the polling stations Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation on the day of poll i.e. on 03/10/2015....”

An official of the state election commission said on Sunday evening that “polling booth” (mentioned by Chatterjee) and “polling station” (written in the permit) were synonymous.

Asok Ganguly, former Supreme Court judge, told this newspaper: “As journalists, you have the right to go to the place where voting takes place and make the people aware about what is going on. Your right to report merges with the citizen’s right to know what is happening. These two rights would have to be seen in togetherness, not in isolation. You have been prevented from carrying out your constitutional right to report and I as a citizen have been prevented from my constitutional right to know.”