Bengal CPI-M RS candidate's nomination rejected

Nomination of Left Front's Rajya Sabha candidate cancelled
EC cancels Bhattacharya's nomination for Bengal RS poll. Will CPI(M) move court?
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01 August, 2017

Bhunia, who had moved from the Congress to the Trinamool in September a year ago, and Chhetri will make their debut in the Upper House.

ALL FIVE candidates from the Trinamool Congress and one from the Congress are set to get elected to the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal after the Election Commission on Monday rejected nomination of CPM candidate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya on technical grounds.

The Election Commission had objected to Bhattacharya's filing on July 28 for not adhering to the deadline but sent the papers for scrutiny after the Left Front claimed they were on time.

Alleging a conspiracy behind rejection of Bhattacharya's nomination paper, CPM legislature party leader Sujan Chakraborty said, "It was planned".

It will be the second upper-house term in the Rajya Sabha for Trinamool leader Derek O'Brien, and two other sitting members, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy and Dola Sen.

Acknowledging the development, Pradip Bhattacharya, the Congress candidate said that he does not want to be part of any political controversy.

More than the elections to the Upper House it is the Trinamool's support to the Congress candidate that has raised questions on the future of the Left-Congress alliance. "That it took 48 hours to take the decision proves there was a lot of merit in our arguments". "We must fight upto the last", said Chakraborty, state secretariat member of Communist Party of India-Marxist.

Rejecting the CPI-M's allegation of conspiracy, Chatterjee, also state Education Minister, accused them of trying to malign the Election Commission by secretly tying up with the BJP.

With Left Front-backed Mr Bhattacharya out of the race, all the six remaining candidates were declared uncontested after the expiry of the 3 pm deadline for the withdrawal of candidatures on Monday. "Neither of these applies to me". At about 11 am the ECI formally announced that Bhattacharya's nomination stood cancelled as he had failed to submit all the requisite papers within time. Assembly Secretary Jayanta Koley refused to accept the affidavit from Bikash, as it was claimed to be submitted after 3 pm. The issue again generated much heat and finally Kolay said the scrutiny would be postponed until 9:00 a.m. July 31.


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