West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee moved the Calcutta High Court on Thursday challenging the polling process in the Nandigram assembly constituency. The matter has been listed for 11 am on Friday before a single-judge bench of Justice Kausik Chanda.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee lost to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari from the Nandigram seat in the recently-concluded West Bengal Assembly elections. According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), the margin of victory was less than 2,000 votes.
Mamata Banerjee had vacated her seat of Bhabanipore to contest the polls from Nandigram in a bid to challenge former confidante Suvendu Adhikari.
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While initial counting put Banerjee ahead of Adhikari by 1,200 votes, the BJP leader eventually managed to score a victory by defeating the two-time chief minister.
Overall, the BJP increased its tally in the West Bengal Assembly from 3 to 77.
The TMC, meanwhile, swept the election by winning 213 out of the total 294 seats. The Trinamool Congress had also sought a recounting of votes polled in Nandigram on May 2.
However, this request was turned down by the Election Commission. The EC had argued that the counting agents of none of the candidates in Nandigram had raised any doubts over the results of the round-wise counting of votes.
Addressing a rally in Sonachura in March, Mamata Banerjee had said, “I could have contested from any other constituency but I have chosen Nandigram to pay my respects to the mothers and sisters of this place. To salute the Nandigram movement, I chose Nandigram over Singur.”
The anti-land acquisition movement in Singur and Nandigram had propelled Mamata Banerjee to power in 2011, putting an end to the Left government’s 34-year rule.
Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/west-bengal-mamata-banerjee-nandigram-election-suvendu-adhikari-tmc-bjp-calcutta-hc-1816225-2021-06-17
