BJP opposes Mamata’s Bhabanipur bypoll papers, cites cases in Assam
KOLKATA: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday registered a complaint with the Election Commission, alleging that West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had not disclosed the pending criminal cases against her in her nomination papers for the upcoming Bhabanipur bypoll.
In his complaint filed with the returning officer, Sajal Ghosh, chief election agent of party candidate Priyanka Tibrewal, said the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief did not mention at least five criminal proceedings pending against her in Assam.
“I beg to object to the nomination/declaration filed by Mamata Banerjee… on the ground that the candidate has failed to disclose particulars of the pending criminal proceedings,” he said.
The letter said the five cases against the Banerjee were pending in Assam’s Geeta Nagar, Pan
Bazaar, Jagiroad, North Lakhimpur and Udharbond police stations. EC officials refused to comment on the matter, saying that they are yet to receive the complaint.
Hitting out at the BJP, a TMC leader said: “The BJP doesn’t have any shame. They had raised the same allegations earlier too. The EC didn’t find anything... Only those cases are mentioned in the affidavit in which the person has been charge-sheeted.”
The TMC leader was referring to a similar complaint with the poll panel filed by Banerjee’s former protege and now BJP leader, Suvendu Adhikari, during the April assembly elections. In a letter to the returning officer of Nandigram, Adhikari alleged the chief minister did not declare the cases by Assam Police and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in her nomination papers.
A senior CBI official, however, had said the accused in the case was a different woman.