Suvendu Adhikari, a West Bengal BJP leader, appears to be making a political as well as a legal move by petitioning the Supreme Court to transfer Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Nandigram assembly election result case from the Calcutta High Court. Legal experts in Kolkata feel this is a “tactic” that could cost Mamata Banerjee a lot of money, even if just momentarily.
Banerjee’s election petition was adjourned until November 15 by a Calcutta High Court bench led by Justice Shampa Sarkar, after Adhikari’s counsel Joydeep Kar submitted that his client had moved the apex court for a transfer of the case outside the state on the grounds that he might not get a fair trial in West Bengal.
The fact that Mamata Banerjee faces a six-month constitutional deadline to have herself re-elected in a state by-election is crucial. She was sworn in as chief minister for the third time in May, despite a razor-thin victory over Adhikari in the Nandigram seat by just over 1,700 votes – a result that is now being contested in the state’s higher courts.
Given that she took oath on May 5, this year, the deadline expires on November 5, ten days before the next date of hearing before the Calcutta High Court.
The Election Commission of India has sent a memo to all national and state-level political parties on August 9, 2021, asking for proposals on how to hold the scheduled by-polls in the wake of the epidemic.
Despite the Trinamool Congress’s repeated official requests to the EC to hold the by-polls as soon as possible, citing improved Covid conditions, many believe the polls will take place no sooner than October this year.
In these conditions, and with Banerjee’s plea being postponed till at least November 15, there will be no decision on whether or not there will be a recount of the Nandigram results, the West Bengal chief minister will have no alternative but to step down temporarily. Unless, of course, she fights the by-elections and wins a seat she wants, which is likely to be Bhowanipore, her former favourite.
Aside from the legal implications, others feel the move will help the BJP and Suvendu Adhikari, who was formerly Banerjee’s trusted deputy but has now become her arch political opponent.
With 75 MLAs in Adhikari’s kitty, it’s clear that the state assembly’s Leader of Opposition is going to make things as tough for the Trinamool Congress supremo as possible. Legally and politically, the ball now stands completely in Mamata Banerjee’s court, awaiting her next move.
In June, Mamata filed a petition in the Calcutta High Court to overturn her Nandigram defeat. Mamata claimed in her election petition to the HC that Adhikari had engaged in “corrupt practises” such as “bribery, undue influence, promoting hatred,” and “seeking votes on the basis of religion.”
