Bengal: TMC’s Tapash Chatterjee who lost seat by 316 votes challenges poll result in HC

Trinamool Congress leader Tapash Chatterjee on Tuesday filed an election petition before the Calcutta High Court challenging the poll result in the Rajarhat New Town Assembly constituency, where he lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Piyush Kanodia by 316 votes, News18 Bangla reported.

TMC chief Mamata Banerjee also filed an election petition before the High Court challenging the poll result in the Bhabanipur constituency, where she lost to BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari. Adhikari, West Bengal’s first BJP chief minister, had defeated Banerjee by a margin of more than 15,100 votes.

On May 4, the BJP defeated the TMC in the state polls, ending the party’s 15-year rule in West Bengal.

In the Rajarhat New Town, a ground report by Scroll had described how the TMC had a lead of 316 votes on May 4. But after an additional round of counting the next day, the BJP won the seat with the same margin. The TMC had held the seat since 2011. Chatterjee had won the seat in 2021 by a margin of more than 56,400 votes.

The Election Commission did not respond to Scroll’s queries about the need for an extra round.

The candidates of both parties accused each other of manipulating the counting process.

Chatterjee had also alleged that BJP workers had violently driven away despondent TMC counting agents, even as central forces watched,...

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