The petition was filed before the Bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam.
In his petition, the Congress leader has accused the State Election Commission of “colluding” with the TMC government in the state to “deliberately” fail in discharging their duty and violating the orders passed by the High Court for conducting free and fair panchayat elections.
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“…surprisingly, in spite of the order passed by the High Court… there was no Central Paramilitary Force in about 80% polling booths,” Chowdhury stated and alleged that from July 7 night, hours before the voting, “antisocial, miscreants joined hands with the state machinery to influence the voters”.
“…the Central Paramilitary Force has not been used to maintain the law and order… at some place… civic volunteers, who have been restrained by the High Court in participating in the election, were seen in videos influencing voters inside booths,” he alleged.
“…throughout the State several genocides has occurred in the name of panchayat elections and people of West Bengal found the bath of blood throughout the State… during the election process, there was no rule of law, the only law of ruler is prevailing throughout the State,” he added.
Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, said he was collecting evidence of alleged electoral malpractices in thousands of booths during the polling on Saturday and will move the Calcutta High Court.
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Speaking to reporters, Adhikari said, “We had submitted a list of 6,000 booths to the State Election Commission (SEC) recommending repoll. False voting had taken place in about 18,000 booths at the behest of the ruling Trinamool Congress. We are collecting more evidence, video footage and everything.”
The State Election Commission on Sunday ordered repoll in 697 polling booths, nearly 1.2 per cent of the total 61,636 that were held on Monday.
“Our list has been overlooked by SEC and we are not surprised. The list of booths announced by the SEC last night was submitted by the TMC. Detailed evidence backed up with ample video footage, will be submitted to the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday when counting of votes will be held,” the BJP MLA said.
Meanwhile, BJP national president JP Nadda constituted a four-member fact-finding committee, headed by former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, to probe into the incidents of violence during the panchayat polls in West Bengal.
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While Prasad is the committee’s convenor, other members include former Mumbai police commissioner and Baghpat MP Satyapal Singh, Silchar MP Rajdeep Roy and Dhaurahara MP and party vice-president Rekha Verma.
The delegation is likely to visit the state today.
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