The Calcutta High Court on Friday reserved the order on a public interest litigation petition relating to the September 30 bypoll in Bhabanipur , where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is contesting.
A Bench of Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj, after hearing the submission of all the parties, reserved the judgment.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) had sought time to file an affidavit regarding its September 4 notification, where it was mentioned that the Chief Secretary had requested it to hold byelection to the seat, failing which there would be a constitutional crisis in the State.
Suvendu Adhikari’s win
Ms. Banerjee contested the this year polls from Nandigram, but lost to the BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari by 1,956 votes. She has to get elected to the Assembly by November first week to continue as Chief Minister.
An affidavit was placed before the court by Ariz Aftab, but it was not stated in it what post he held in the ECI. Justice Bindal took exception to this. Mr. Aftab is the Chief Electoral Officer of the State.
Justice Bindal asked the ECI counsel as to why the question of constitutional crisis had not been answered in the affidavit.
Counsel said the Chief Secretary would be the person who could answer the question.
Justice Bindal was not satisfied with the reply. He asked why by-election to only one constituency when there were several bypolls due in the State?
The ECI wanted to file another affidavit, which was not permitted.
Case against BJP leaders
In another development, the Kolkata police have registered a case against BJP’s Bhabanipur candidate Priyanka Tibrewal, Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumder, MPs Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato and Arjun Singh and others. The BJP leaders, on Thursday, protested with the body of Dhurjati Saha, party candidate from Mograhat Paschim, at Kalighat near the Chief Minister’s residence.
Dhurjati Saha was injured in alleged post-poll violence in May and died earlier this week.
The police have pressed charges of unlawful assembly, rioting, obstruction, using criminal force to deter public servant from discharging their duties on BJP leaders during the protest.
