Bengal panchayat polls: Suvendu Adhikari seeks probe into TMC's 'abnormally high' nominations

Leader of opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari, on Saturday, sought an investigation into the 'abnormally high' number of nominations by ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) for the state panchayat polls within an extremely short time span on June 14.

"It needs to be investigated how TMC filed almost 40,000 nominations on June 14 within 4 hours & 36,000 on June 15 within the stipulated time period between 11: 00 AM and 3:00 PM without their candidates queuing up in the nomination centres," he tweeted.

In the same message, he accused a heavyweight TMC candidate from North 24 Parganas district Shahjahan Sheikh of suppressing financial facts in the affidavit attached with his nomination.

"Because, this person, who owns & operates several Fish Farms, Fish Processing Plant & allied businesses; Brick Kilns & one Shopping Complex at Sarberia More; states in his Nomination Papers that his Annual Income is merely 19 lakh 83 thousand only! The person who owns multiple buildings, several acres of land & has recently got a new house constructed at Park Circus Kolkata; the valuation of which runs into multiple crores mentioned in his Nomination Papers that the value of his land & building is only about 5 crores," the message read.

Demanding that the Income Tax department initiate an investigation on this alleged suppression of financial fact, Adhikari also accused Sheikh of murdering several local BJP leaders at Basirhat sub-division in North 24 Parganas after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

"In 2019, after the Lok Sabha elections, the Basirhat Sub Division witnessed post poll violence of the worst kind. Shahjahan Sheikh masterminded the attacks on BJP Karyakartas after a significant number of Voters of many Gram Panchayat areas, voted in favour of the BJP. Pradip Mondal & Sukanta Mondal; among several other leaders & workers of the BJP were killed in Sandeshkhali; North 24 Parganas district. As because he had the protection of the highest level, the law couldn't caught up with him," the BJP leader's message claimed.