Suvendu Adhikari moves Calcutta HC against Mamata for violating Code of Conduct

Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Wednesday filed a petition at the Calcutta High Court accusing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) in the run up to the panchayat polls, scheduled for July 8.

Despite the MCC being in place, Mamata Banerjee is participating at a mass-outreach programme christened 'Sorasori Mukhyomontri' (chief minister directly), wherein the people convey their grievances to the chief minister directly, he said in the plea.

It is learnt that Adhikari had originally filed the petition at Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha on Tuesday.

But Justice Sinha refused to admit that petition and the BJP leader to approach the division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya in the matter.

On Wednesday, Adhikari drew attention of the said division- bench of the Calcutta High Court and his petition was admitted there.

The matter will come up for hearing on Thursday.

According to Adhikari, the same number is used for the new mass- outreach programme that was used in a similar programme introduced before the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls called *Didike bolo* (Tell the chief minister).

While 'Didike bolo' was a political campaign programme, how can the same number be used in case of 'Sorasori Mukhyomontri', which is an administrative initiative, asked.