BJP leader and Nandigram MLA Suvendu Adhikari has moved the Supreme Court seeking transfer of the case filed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee challenging his win in the Assembly elections outside West Bengal. Adhikari had defeated Banerjee by a margin of around 1,600 votes.
Adhikari's petition to the Supreme Court came hours after Justice Shampa Sarkar of Calcutta High Court accepted Banerjee's election plea on Wednesday. Justice Sarkar has issued notice to the Election Commission, Adhikari and the returning officer of Nandigram. The case would be heard again on August 12.
The Nandigram case is increasingly becoming a major controversy in Bengal politics as Banerjee had earlier raised objection to the case being heard by Justice Kaushik Chanda of the Calcutta High Court, alleging that he used to be a member of BJP's state legal cell and the additional solicitor general of India during the first Narendra Modi government.
Justice Chanda recused himself last week and the case was handed over to Justice Sarkar, who is fairly a new permanent judge of the high court.
Adhikari alleged that the high court was under tremendous pressure from the state government. So the shifting of case has become urgent, he said.
Since the election is the sole discretion of the Election Commission, the court has limitation and certain issues related to the matter of election could only be decided by the Constitution bench of the Supreme Court.
A six-member delegation team of TMC would meet the CEC on Thursday at 4.30 in Delhi. They will demand immediate holding of byelection in seven seats in Bengal.
