West Bengal: Alleging counting illegalities in Nandigram, TMC threatens legal heat on ECI

The party claimed "tampering and mismanagement of numbers from the EVM"

ITDC INDIA EPRESS/ITDC NEWS Alleging illegalities in the vote counting procedure for the previously concluded West Bengal assembly polls, the Trinamool Congress has demanded a recount in Nandigram constituency from which Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was reportedly defeated. In Nandigram, BJP star candidate Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday outsmarted Banerjee by a margin of 1,956 votes to emerge the winner in the constituency, the Election Commission had announced. While Adhikari bagged 1,10,764 votes, Banerjee, his one time mentor, managed 1,08808 votes, the poll panel confirmed. CPI(M)'s Minakshi Mukherjee finished in a distant third position polling just 6267 votes, the EC website said.

In addition, Mamata said she was ready to move court against the Election Commission if necessary. "The EC behaved in a rude manner with us. It fought with us just like a BJP spokesperson. We will go to court against it," she said. TMC, along with other like minded parties, will move the Supreme Court constitutional bench against the EC, she said. "Two, three nominated persons cannot decide the fate of this country and its elections," she said. Banerjee said she has information about counting malpractice.

There was massive confusion on who had actually bagged the crucial Nandigram seat after reports stating that Banerjee had defeated Adhikari appeared in different media though there was no confirmation from the Election Commission. While Adhikari thanked the people of Nandigram for voting in his favour, the TMC demanded recounting alleging illegal incidents during Sunday's counting.

The TMC wrote to the CEO requesting an immediate recounting of votes, alleging "tampering and mismanagement of numbers from the EVM and said that the counting process was stalled from time to time and was not reported by the poll panel. The party in its letter to the CEO also alleged that valid votes in favour of Banerjee were rejected while invalid votes for the BJP were counted. The TMC also described the refusal of the Returning Officer to conduct recounting of the votes as "bad in law and coloured".