Shubhendu Adhikari, who defeated Mamata Banerjee in the West Bengal Assembly elections, is now facing serious allegations. A former ally of his own leader has claimed that the officer had resorted to gimmicks to defeat Mamata Banerjee from Nandigram.
TMC vice-president Jai Prakash Majumdar and TMC leader Rajiv Banerjee, who quit BJP and joined Trinamool Congress, claimed that Leader of Opposition Shubhendu Adhikari had used “unfair” means to win Nandigram seat in the 2021 assembly elections. Addressing the media, Majumdar said the officer called him and said he had to “work” to ensure he lost the seat to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Majumdar said- “I remember Shubhendu saying on the night of May 2 that he would have to adopt tactics to win Nandigram. The counting process in Nandigram was not transparent. By adopting tactics, Shubhendu suddenly overtook Mamata Banerjee, who was initially declared the winner.”
Majumdar was once a fierce critic of Mamata Banerjee. At the same time, former state minister Rajiv Banerjee, who had contested on a BJP ticket in the last election and returned to the TMC after the defeat, also claimed that Majumdar’s claims are 100 per cent correct. Banerjee said- “I know that Shubhendu Adhikari was not declared the winner in a fair manner. I can confirm that.”
Let us inform that Mamata Banerjee was initially declared the winner from Nandigram seat, but later it was announced that the officer had won this seat by a margin of 1959 votes. Mamta Banerjee and her party had also called it rigged then, but later TMC also fell silent on this issue and Mamta reached the assembly after winning the by-election.
BJP has also retaliated on the claims of these two leaders. BJP has rejected their allegations and said that both these leaders are making such claims to increase their numbers in TMC.