NEW DELHI, Sept 14: The BJP on Tuesday filed a complaint against the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee claiming before the Election Commission of India that in her nomination papers for the Bhabanipur state Assembly byelection she deliberately did not mention the pending criminal cases against her. Banerjee had filed her papers on Friday for the byelection to be held on September 30.
“I beg to object to the nomination/declaration filed by Mamata Banerjee… on the ground that the candidate has failed to disclose particulars of the pending criminal proceedings against her,” Sajal Ghosh, the chief election agent of the saffron party’s candidate for the constituency, Priyanka Tibrewal, wrote to the EC.
In the letter, Ghosh also mentioned the number of cases filed against Banerjee at various police stations in Assam. The Trinamool Congress supremo, who lost to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari from Nandigram, has to win this by-election to retain her chief ministerial post. TMC MLA Sovandeb Chattopadhyay has vacated the Bhabanipur seat — a TMC bastion — to allow Banerjee to contest from there.
(Manas Dasgupta)