The Trinamool Congress has lodged a complaint with the Election Commission of India (ECI) objecting to its decision to rope in the former Indian cricket team captain, Sourav Ganguly, for an audio-visual promotion of the West Bengal Assembly elections, citing his alleged affiliation to the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
The Trinamool raised doubts about Mr. Ganguly's neutrality given that CPI(M) leader Ashok Bhattacharya had already announced that the former cricketer would campaign for him in the elections. They submitted a CD containing Mr. Bhattacharya's version.
Pointing out that the ECI had asked the State's Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Gupta on Wednesday to look into the complaint, Additional Chief Electoral Officer N.K. Sahana said that the Trinamool had charged that roping Mr. Ganguly in would be against the ethics of the Commission, given that he was allegedly affiliated with a particular political party.
“Mr. Ganguly was selected by the Commission as an icon subsequent to a verbal assurance to the effect that he will not campaign for any political party,” Mr. Sahana said. He added that a decision on the issue would be taken by Thursday.
Approaching Mr. Ganguly was part of the ECI's decision to enlist well-known personalities to spread the message of the need to support one's franchise. Renowned percussionist Bickram Ghosh, too, has agreed to be a part of the awareness campaign. The notification for the second phase of polling in the State was issued. Fifty Assembly segments in the Nadia, Murshidabad and Birbhum districts would go to the polls on April 23, for which the last date for filing the nomination is April 6 and the last date for the withdrawing of nominations is April 9.
