- Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has accused Trinamool of election fraud and abusing state machinery
- Trinamool's Abhishek Banerjee has demanded explanation from the Election Commission over inconsistencies
- Banerjee alleged that except for BJP, the EC barred political parties' counting agents from Falta poll booths
The re-election in Bengal's Falta, won by the BJP with over 1 lakh votes, have sparked a massive political row. The Trinamool Congress's Abhishek Banerjee has sought an explanation from the Election Commission, saying the matter "exposes glaring inconsistencies". Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has hit back, saying, "The notorious 'Diamond Harbour' model has turned into the 'Trinamool's Loss-Bar' model".
In a post on X, Adhikari, without naming anyone, issued a series of strong comments.
"A fraudster who parachuted in and claimed the title of commander-there's no crime this con artist hasn't orchestrated. To establish his own crime syndicate, this 'cat draped in a tiger's skin' didn't hesitate even to throttle democracy," Adhikari posted on X.
The Trinamool, he said, had turned the previous election into a "farce", taking a lead of one-and-a-half lakh votes in this assembly segment.
"Fifteen years later, when people regained the freedom to cast their votes on their own, the true reality came to light," he added.
The party did not escape unscathed.
"A party devoid of principles and ideology, which had morphed into a mafia company, has had its skeletal state laid bare upon losing power. By abusing state machinery, this party looted public funds, extorted people's hard-earned money, and seized it through syndicates and a culture of threats-its leaders had come to see the state as their fiefdom," Adhikari's post read.
In his post, Abhishek Banerjee accused the Election Commission of barring polling centres to counting agents of all parties except the BJP.
"Counting agents of Trinamool and other political parties, except the BJP, were allegedly thrown out of the venue on May 4th by officials and central forces deployed under the Election Commission of India. This is deeply alarming and strikes at the heart of free and fair elections," he wrote in his post.
The Trinamool candidate had dropped out of the race in Falta days before the election and the runners up in the race was Trinamool's longtime adversary, the CPM.
Falta, located in Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee's Diamond Harbour stronghold, had been a Trinamool fortress since 2011.
This time, repolling was ordered in all 285 booths in the constituency after allegations of EVM tampering during the Phase 2 polls on April 29. A turnout of over 87 per cent (of the total 2.36 lakh voters) was recorded during the repolling on Thursday.
