Bengal panchayat polls: Adhir ‘congratulates’ Mamata for winning violent election

Berhampore (WB): West Bengal Pradesh Congress president Adhir Chowdhury on Saturday "congratulated" Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee for winning the just-concluded violent rural polls.

Addressing a press conference in Berhampore in Murshidabad district, Chowdhury termed the polls "peculiar".

"Congrats Didi, you have won the panchayat elections," he said. "'Aapni jite gechen' (you have won)," he said, adding sarcastically that Banerjee’s injured leg will be fine on the counting day on July 11 and she will come out of her home and thank people for making her victorious in the polls.

He alleged that voting, which was supposed to start at 7am on Saturday, had actually begun on Friday night.

"Ballot boxes were taken out at night, false votes were cast and those were put back in the boxes before being returned to the polling booths," Chowdhury alleged.

The PCC president said the polls were nothing but a farce. "If the polls were not held, then perhaps there wouldn’t have been so many deaths," he said.

What happened on Saturday was state-sponsored terrorism, Chowdhury alleged, adding that the BJP will take advantage of the situation as it had done after the 2018 panchayat polls.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the saffron party had bagged 18 of the 42 seats in West Bengal, he pointed out.

"Nobody will be spared by the Trinamool goons. The ruling party has got the opportunity to renew the license to carry out loot for the next five years," he added.

If the Congress had the power to hurl bombs on polling day or during run-up to the elections, do you think the Trinamool Congress could have looted votes, he asked.

Chowdhury alleged that central forces were not active because of a nexus between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP.