Kolkata Police on Friday registered two cases following a complaint by the Election Commission of India over chaos outside a nomination centre, where senior Suvendu Adhikari and other BJP candidates filed their papers a day earlier amid clashes and alleged slogan-shouting by ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers.
“Two cases were registered against unidentified people at the Alipore and Kalighat police stations,” a police officer said, requesting anonymity.
After addressing a rally at Hazra, barely 300 metres from the chief minister’s Kalighat residence, Union home minister Amit Shah accompanied Adhikari—who is contesting chief minister Mamata Banerjee at her Bhabanipur seat—along with Rashbehari candidate Swapan Dasgupta, Ballygunge seat nominee Shatarupa, and Santosh Pathak from Chowringhee to the Alipore Survey Building, where they filed their papers on Thursday.
This was the first time Shah had accompanied a BJP candidate to a nomination centre in Bengal.
Local TMC workers gathered on both sides of the road and shouted anti-BJP slogans, allegedly targeting Adhikari, who defeated Banerjee in Nandigram in 2021, following which she won a by-election in Bhabanipur and retained the chief minister’s post. TMC supporters had allegedly installed loudspeakers around the Survey Building and played the party’s campaign songs.
Clashes broke out between BJP and TMC workers, following which police had to restrict their movement with steel barricades.
{{/usCountry}}Clashes broke out between BJP and TMC workers, following which police had to restrict their movement with steel barricades.
{{/usCountry}}“The TMC did not seek any police permission for the assembly. Citing the incident, police commissioner Ajay Nand cautioned all police stations at a meeting of senior officers on Friday,” the police officer said.
“The ECI directed the Kolkata police to take action, stating that no political party can organise gatherings, use loudspeakers or shout slogans outside nomination centres,” the officer added.
No arrests had been made till Friday afternoon.
TMC state vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar alleged that the ECI lodged the complaint under pressure from Shah. “On seeing the spirit of the people, Amit Shah realised that he cannot win the coming battle. He returned to Delhi and made ECI make an issue out of the sloganeering,” Majumdar said.
Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Debjit Sarkar said, “The ECI follows rules and orders action when rules are violated. TMC is free to make baseless allegations.”