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Mamata Banerjee vs Suvendu Adhikari: Calcutta HC defers hearing on Nandigram election result till June 24

 West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has filed an election petition before the Calcutta High Court praying for declaring the election of Suvendu Adhikari from Nandigram as null and void.

Mamata Banerjee vs Suvendu Adhikari: Calcutta HC defers hearing on Nandigram election result till June 24-dnm
Author
Bengaluru, First Published Jun 18, 2021, 12:48 PM IST

The Calcutta high court on Friday deferred to June 24 hearing in the petition filed by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee challenging Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari's Nandigram win in the 2021 state assembly elections.

The matter was listed for hearing before a single bench, which deferred it till June 24.

"Let the matter be listed next Thursday. In the meantime, the Registrar shall file a report before this court as to whether the petition has been filed in conformity with the Representation of People Act," the Calcutta HC directed in its Friday order.

The Trinamool Congress supremo, in her petition, has accused Adhikari of committing corrupt practises as envisaged under Section 123 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

The alleged corrupt practices included "bribery, undue influence, spreading enmity", according to her petition. Banerjee also claimed in her plea that discrepancies were committed in the counting process.

The Election Commission had declared Adhikari the winner and the Trinamool Congress supremo the runner-up in the fiercely contested election for the Nandigram constituency.

Alleging tampering of EVM machines and refusal of demands for recounting by the concerned EC official, Banerjee had said following declaration of the results that the doors of the court will be knocked on the issue.  

Before and during the assembly elections, the TMC was at loggerheads with EC, with the ruling party repeatedly accusing the poll panel of working at the behest of the BJP-led government at the Centre. Both the BJP and the commission had, however, refuted such charges.

Even though the Trinamool Congress (TMC) returned to power for the third consecutive term, Mamata Banerjee lost to her former aide Suvendu Adhikari by a narrow margin of 1,956 votes. This was Banerjee’s first electoral loss in over three decades, one that saw several twists and turns throughout the high-stakes counting process.

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