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BJP moves HC seeking repolls to civic bodies in Bengal
Governor Jagdeep Dhankar summoned the state poll panel chief Saurabh Das at Raj Bhavan to get a brief about the incidents. After the meeting, the panel announced re-elections in two booths –ward 33 of South Dum Dum municipality and ward 25 in Sreerampore municipality. The re-poll would be held on Tuesday and counting on March 2.
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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday moved the Calcutta high court demanding re-election to all 108 municipalities in West Bengal alleging large scale violence during the voting on Sunday. In the petition, the BJP has said that the violence was manifest and there had been a “complete distortion of law and order”.
On Monday, Governor Jagdeep Dhankar summoned the state poll panel chief Saurabh Das at Raj Bhavan to get a brief about the incidents. After the meeting, the panel announced re-elections in two booths –ward 33 of South Dum Dum municipality and ward 25 in Sreerampore municipality. The re-poll would be held on Tuesday and counting on March 2.
BJP also held a 12-hour statewide bandh against the violence on. Party workers staged protests and blocked roads and trains in multiple places. In some places, the police resorted to lathi-charge.
“It seems that the chief minister wanted to hold re-poll in two booths, and the state poll panel is just acting on the orders. The rigging was peaceful, and voting was held in one or two places. The poll panel has failed,” said Sukanta Majumdar, BJP president in West Bengal.
“The state poll panel has become a laughing stock. The poll panel is equivalent to the state secretariat,” said Adhir Ranjan Choudhury, president of Congress in West Bengal.
The ruling Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh hit back, saying, “The people have discarded the BJP, CPIM and Congress. Elections were largely peaceful despite the opposition trying to stage drama known well that they would lose. Poll panel has ordered a re-poll wherever voting was disrupted.”
