Chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s petition challenging the process of election of BJP candidate Suvendu Adhikari from the Nandigram Assembly constituency was formally moved before Justice Kaushik Chanda of Calcutta High Court on Friday.

The judge fixed June 25 for virtual hearing of the petition and pointed out that Mamata should be present during the proceedings.

“My client will be present virtually before the court on the date of hearing of the petition,” advocate Sanjay Basu, who filed the petition on behalf of Mamata, said later.

Mamata had lost the Nandigram seat to BJP candidate and her bête noire Suvendu Adhikari by 1,956 votes. Although Mamata had accepted the verdict, she had hinted at moving court alleging discrepancies in counting of votes. She had also alleged that the returning officer in charge of Nandigram had been threatened at gunpoint to not order a re-poll.

Mamata’s petition challenging the verdict and alleging malpractices in the counting of votes has been based on three aspects that the petitioner argued did not stand legal sanctity:

⚫ Adhikari’s election was based on division of people on the basis of their religion. By this process, he had spread enmity, promoted hatred among the people and violated the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

⚫ Discrepancies were found in the process of counting of votes.

⚫ The provisions laid down in the Representation of the People Act, 1951, were not followed while announcing Adhikari as the winner. Even though Adhikari’s name was previously in the voter’s list of Haldia Assembly constituency, he did not mention it before the Election Commission during filing of nomination papers (During revision of electoral rolls before the Assembly polls, Adhikari had included his name in the Nandigram Assembly constituency). The Trinamul Congress had raised the point with the EC but it was not heard.

Appearing on behalf of Mamata, advocate Gopal Mukherjee mentioned the case before the court and prayed for early hearing. Responding to the plea, Justice Chanda decided to hear the case on June 25 and said: “According to the rules, petitioner should be present during the moving of such a petition.”

The petition was moved on Friday to meet the legal requirement of filing an election supplication related to poll result within 45 days of its publication. Friday was the 44th day since the election poll result was announced on May 2 and the counsel appearing for Mamata mentioned it before the court seeking hearing of the case.

In a related development, four election petitions challenging the electoral process were filed on behalf of the Trinamul Congress before Justice Kaushik Chanda on Friday.

The party has challenged the election process in the Assembly constituencies of Bongoan (South), Moyna, Balarampur and Goghat. In all these constituencies, Trinamul candidates had lost the election by narrow margins.

The petitions were likely to be heard by the court next week. Hearing the petitions, Justice Chanda directed the Election Commission to preserve electoral documents relating to the four constituencies.