Bengal Panchayat Polls: BJP's Suvendu Adhikari Seeks Probe Into TMC's High Nomination Numbers

BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari sought a thorough investigation into the abnormally high number of nominations filed by the ruling Trinamool Congress within an extremely short span of time on June 14.

Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday sought a thorough investigation into the abnormally high number of nominations filed by the ruling Trinamool Congress ahead of the state panchayat polls scheduled to take place on July 8. Adhikari questioned the nomination numbers that were filed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s party within an extremely short span of time on June 14. While accusing the Trinamool Congress candidate from North 24 Parganas district Shahjahan Sheikh of hiding financial facts in the affidavit attached to his nomination, he said over 40,000 nominations by the TMC need urgent investigations.

In a Tweet, he said, "It needs to be investigated how TMC filed almost 40,000 nominations on June 14 within 4 hours and 36,000 on June 15.”

He also said the investigation should be conducted within the stipulated time period, between 11 AM and 3 PM without their candidates queuing up at the nomination centres.

Adhikari has also accused heavyweight Trinamool Congress candidate from North 24 Parganas district Shahjahan Sheikh of hiding financial facts in the affidavit attached to his nomination.

While commenting on this on his Twitter profile, he said, "This person owns and operates several Fish Farms, Fish Processing Plant and allied businesses, Brick Kilns and one Shopping Complex at Sarberia More.”

However, he states in his nomination papers that his annual income is merely 19 lakh 83 thousand, Adhikari said further in his Tweet. The BJP leader also said Sheikh owns multiple buildings, and several acres of land and has recently got a new house constructed at Park Circus Kolkata.

While taking a swipe at the TMC leader, he said, “The valuation of Sheikh’s assets mentioned in the nomination papers runs into multiple crores and the value of his land and building is only about 5 crores.”

After the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, the Basirhat Sub Division witnessed post-poll violence of the worst kind. And Adhikari said, Sheikh masterminded the attacks on BJP Karyakartas after a significant number of voters of many Gram Panchayat areas, voted in favour of the BJP.

In the same Tweet, he said, “Several other BJP leaders and workers such as Pradip Mondal and Sukanta Mondal were killed in Sandeshkhali of the North 24 Parganas district during that time. 

He further said, “Because he had the protection at the highest level, the law couldn't catch up with him.”

Adhikari has demanded that the Income Tax department initiate an investigation into this alleged suppression of financial facts in relation to the Assets and Income of Shahjahan Sheikh.