Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee approached the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday, challenging the Bhabanipur Assembly Election result.
Banerjee, the former Chief Minister of West Bengal, sought
to challenge the election outcome in which she was defeated by her closest rival and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari from Bhabanipur by a margin of 15,015 votes, sources told CNN-News18.
Bhabanipur was viewed as Mamata’s stronghold with a deep hold of the Trinamool’s cadre.
Suvendu Adhikari, now the Bengal CM, emerged victorious from both Bhabanipur and Nandigram seats in the recently-concluded State Assembly election.
Mamata Challenged 2021 Nandigram Result
The development comes even before the disposal of Mamata Banerjee’s old petition before the High Court that challenged the result of the 2021 Nandigram Assembly Election, with the victorious candidate being Suvendu Adhikari.
In 2021, Adhikari emerged as the ‘giant killer’ after he defeated the TMC chief from Nandigram by a narrow margin.
She had then moved the Calcutta HC, alleging the Returning Officer of the Assembly seat had said that he was threatened against recounting of votes.
Poll Rout And An Existential Crisis
In the aftermath of the West Bengal Assembly Election, Mamata Banerjee’s TMC is undergoing an existential crisis as a faction of 20 rebel MPs — including Mamata’s trusted-aide Saayoni Ghosh — merged with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), an ally of the BJP-led NDA.
This came days after TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar wrote a letter to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla, expressing desire to back the NDA in Parliament.
Earlier, TMC’s rebel MLA Ritabrata Banerjee, backed by a group of 58 MLAs, staked claim as the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly.
