Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of Bengal, has filed a case in the Calcutta High Court against the BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari’s win in Nandigram. The Chief Minister, who ran against Mr. Adhikari from the seat that catapulted her to office in 2011, was defeated by a margin of over 1,700 votes.
Several twists and turns occurred throughout the counting, which lasted till midnight.
Ms Banerjee had behind Mr Adhikari for 11 rounds, but the pattern reversed in the following four, with margins ranging from six to eleven thousand dollars. Mr. Adhikari was proclaimed the winner after winning in the final rounds.
The Chief Minister said the servers were down for four hours during the counting the next day, indicating probable irregularities.
I was also congratulated by the Governor. Everything changed all of a sudden,” the Chief Minister explained.
She also told reporters that the election officer in charge of the constituency’s counting was under danger.
“I received an SMS from someone wherein Returning Officer of Nandigram has written to someone if he allows recounting then his life would be under threat. I can’t order recount. My family will be in ruin. I have a little daughter…,” she told reporters, reading from her cellphone.
Mamata Banerjee had declared she accepted the judgement of the people of Nandigram before the counting was completed on May 2, pointing to her party’s landslide win.
“Don’t worry about Nandigram, I struggled for Nandigram because I fought a movement. It’s all right. Let the Nandigram people give whatever verdict they want, I accept that. I don’t mind. We have won the state,” she said.
She did, however, warn that she would take the Poll Commission to the Supreme Court over the manner the election was handled.
“I’m going to make an appeal to all political parties. We’ll all go to the Supreme Court and ask the constitution bench questions. For the Election Commission, there must be certain restrictions, some Laxman Rekha “she had stated
