Mamata suppressed facts in her affidavit, BJP complains to EC

Kolkata, Sep 14 (IANS) Fresh controversy has erupted after BJP complained to the Election Commission of India objecting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's candidature from Bhabanipur Assembly constituency as she has suppressed facts in her affidavit along with her nomination papers.

The BJP has complained that Banerjee has not disclosed in her affidavit five criminal cases pending against her.

In a letter to the Returning Officer of Bhabanipur Assembly Constituency, BJP candidate Priyanka Tibrewal's chief election agent Sajal Ghosh said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has not disclosed five criminal cases pending against her in her affidavit.

Giving details of the cases, Ghosh said that the Chief Minister has been booked under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), Section 153A (promoting enmity) and Section 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) of Indian Penal Code in several police stations of Assam including Geeta Nagar police station, Panbazar police station, Jagiroad police station, Lakhimpur police station and Udharbond police station.

Ghosh, referring to several newspaper reports, said that Mamata Banerjee has not mentioned these cases in her affidavit and hence her nomination papers should not be accepted.

Banerjee who was the TMC candidate from Nandigram faced similar objections from the then BJP candidate who had objected that Banerjee had not mentioned six cases pending against her. Of the six cases five are the same cases mentioned by Ghosh in his complaint.

Mamata Banerjee, however contested the Nandigram election but lost to Suvendu Adhikari.

The Assembly seat of Bhabanipur, tucked in the South Kolkata Lok Sabha constituency, had scripted Mamata Banerjee's ascendancy to Bengal, both in 2011 and 2016.

Banerjee is aware that things in Bhabanipur this time around are not as easy as they were in 2011 when she decimated the Left and had won by a whopping 49,936 votes from the seat.

Her victory margin was an enviable 21.91 per cent with a voter turnout of around 63.78 per cent. But, in 2016 her winning margin was slashed by nearly half. With a 66.83 per cent voter turnout, Mamata won by 25,301 votes, with a victory margin of 10.21 per cent.