The matter has been listed for hearing along with her petition of recusal of the case before the bench of Justice Kaushik Chanda. The hearing will take place around 11 am.
Justice Chanda had on 18 June adjourned till 24 June Banerjee’s election petition praying for declaring the election of Suvendu Adhikari from Nandigram null and void on grounds of committing corrupt practises as envisaged under Section 123 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
The matter had been mentioned on that date by Banerjee’s lawyer before the court of Justice Chanda as per the list for hearing.
The judge had directed the Registrar, High Court, Original Side, to file a report before the court by the next date of hearing as to whether the election petition has been filed in conformity with the Representation of People Act, 1951.
Nandigram battle
The alleged corrupt practices included “bribery, undue influence, spreading enmity”, according to her petition. Banerjee also claimed that discrepancies were committed in the counting process.
The CM had vacated her seat of Bhabanipore to fight her former confidante Adhikari in the recently-concluded West Bengal assembly elections. However, she lost by less than 1800 votes from the Nandigram seat.
While initial counting put the Bengal CM ahead of Adhikari by 1,200 votes, the BJP’s candidate eventually managed to score a victory by defeating the two-time chief minister.
Despite this, the TMC registered a landslide victory in polls winning 213 seats in the 294-member West Bengal assembly. While the BJP lost the polls but emerged as the second-largest party with 77 seats.