"Prima Facie Case Made Out": Calcutta HC Issues Notice To BJP's Ashoke Dinda On TMC Leader's Plea Challenging His Election Win

Sangram Dolui had lost to BJP's Ashok Dinda by 1,260 votes in Moyna Constituency and thus, in his election plea, he had alleged irregularities in counting.

Hearing the matter, Justice Tirthankar Ghosh observed thar prima facie, a case had been made out for issuance of notice against the respondent.

The Counsel appearing for Dolai alleged that Dinda suppressed and furnished misinformation while filing his nomination and adopted corrupt practices during the process of election.

Accordingly, under Rule 24 of the Election Petition Rules, 1967, notice was directed to be issued to the necessary parties.

The matter will now be heard on July 9.

Earlier, apart from West Bengal's Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, 4 other TMC leaders moved to the Calcutta High Court seeking a review of the results [West Bengal Assembly Polls 2021] in their respective constituencies.

The 4 other TMC leaders who have moved to the Calcutta High Court are Alorani Sarkar, Sangram Kumar Dolai, Manas Majumder and Shantiram Mahato, who lost narrowly in the recent Assembly Election to the BJP Candidate.

All the four petitions were heard recently by different judges of Calcutta High Court and the matters were posted for further hearing in late June and July.

Yesterday, a single bench of Justice Kausik Chanda reserved order on an application moved by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seeking the judge's recusal from hearing her election petition.

The Chief Minister had objected to Justice Chanda hearing her petition citing "likelihood of bias "due to the associations the had with BJP during his days as a lawyer".

Banerjee's election petition challenges the election of BJP candidate Suvendhu Adhikari from Nandigram in the recently held West Bengal assembly polls.