KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday accepted the election petition filed by Trinamool Congress chief and former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee challenging her loss in south Kolkata’s Bhabanipur Assembly constituency.
The Supreme Court held that the petition discloses a valid cause of action and meets the requirements under the Representation of the People Act, 1951. Refusing to dismiss the petition, Justice Gouranga Kant ordered that the CCTV footage of the counting process at the Sakhawat Memorial Government Girls School counting center be preserved. The court said no CCTV footage would be deleted without its permission.
Justice Kant also ordered that all EVMs and VVPATs used in Bhabanipur constituency be properly preserved. The next hearing on this issue will be held in two months.
Before the hearing, Justice Kant informed the parties that they could seek transfer of the case to another court if they had any objection, as his elder brother is a BJP spokesperson. “My elder brother is a BJP spokesperson. Do not submit the petition to my bank if you have any objection,” he said.
Senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee, appearing for Mamata, said, “We have full faith in the justice for impartiality and he will try the case with complete freedom.”
Mamata had suffered a defeat to BJP-nominated candidate Suvendu Adhikari by a margin of more than 15,000 votes in Bhabanipur, where polling was held on April 29 in the second phase.
She had recently filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court challenging Adhikar’s victory. She was accompanied by party MP Kunal Ghosh and Rajya Sabha MP Dola Sen when she appeared before the court.
In 2021, Mamata had also filed a petition challenging her loss to Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram Assembly constituency in East Midnapore. This case remains under trial.
