Defeated BJP candidate from Diamond Harbour files election petition in Calcutta HC

Kolkata: Abhijit 'Bobby' Das, the BJP candidate from the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal who was defeated by Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee by a record margin of over seven lakh votes, filed an election petition in the Calcutta High Court on Thursday challenging the poll results.

Das is the fifth BJP candidate from West Bengal to file an election petition in the Calcutta High Court.

On June 25, the BJP candidate from Basirhat in North constituency in 24 Parganas district Rekha Patra and another from Ghatal constituency in West Midnapore district filed similar petitions in the High Court.

On July 2, the party candidate from Cooch Behar constituency and former Union minister of state for home affairs Nisith Pramanik filed a similar election petition. Then again on July 3, the BJP candidate from Arambagh Lok Sabha constituency in Hooghly district filed a similar election petition.

In his election petition filed on Thursday, Das claimed that in several EVMs at Diamond Harbour, the column for the BJP candidate was kept covered and in many election booths the CCTV cameras were non-functional.

He alleged in the petition that voters were intimidated at several places in Diamond Harbour and the BJP’s polling agents were evicted from a number of booths.

In fact, after the polls on June 1, Das demanded re-election in as many as 470 booths at Diamond Harbour. However, the appeal was turned down by the Election Commission of India.