Plea on Ghatal LS Poll: Calcutta HC Directs Inclusion of Sitting MP as Party

KOLKATA:
Acting on the election petition filed by the BJP candidate from Ghatal Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal, Hiran Chatterjee, the Calcutta High Court on Friday directed that the sitting Trinamool Congress MP from that constituency, Deepak Adhikari be made a party in the case.

Hiran Chatterjee, an elected BJP legislator from Kharagpur (Sadar) in West Midnapore District filed a petition alleging massive rigging and malpractices on polling day.

As the matter came up for hearing on Friday at the single-judge Bench of Justice Bivas Pattanayak, the latter directed the inclusion of Deepak Adhikari alias Dev as a party to the case.

At the same time, Justice Pattanayak also directed preservation of all election-related documents including EVMs, postal ballots and CCTV footage among others.

The next date of hearing has been scheduled on September 6.

On July 31, acting on the petition filed by Rekha Patra, the BJP candidate from Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency in the last elections and the face of the Sandeshkhali movement, another single-judge Bench of Justice Krishna Rao issued a notice to all parties including the sitting Trinamool Congress MP from Haji Nurul Islam.

Besides Chatterjee and Patra, three other defeated candidates namely from Cooch Behar, Diamond Harbour in South 24 Parganas District and Arambagh in Hooghly District, too, filed petitions at the Calcutta High Court alleging massive irregularities on polling days in their respective constituencies.

The Calcutta High Court’s Chief Justice, TS Sivagnanam allotted five different single-judge Benches to hear these five election-related petitions.