Claiming it was not an "unfortunate incident" but a conspiracy, a six-member TMC delegation met with the Election Commission (EC) and demanded a high-level probe into an alleged attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram.
The TMC delegation met with the entire EC team for over an hour which also included the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Sunil Arora. The delegation also submitted a memorandum to the EC team and highlighted how BJP leaders in West Bengal had threatened the chief minister through tweets and other remarks.
"Injuries to Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram were not a result of an unfortunate incident but that of a conspiracy. The events leading up to the attempt on her life leave no doubt that the attack was part of a deep-rooted conspiracy," TMC MP Saugata Roy told reporters after meeting the EC.
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In the memorandum, the TMC has made allegations against Suvendu Adhikari, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Nandigram in the upcoming state Assembly polls.
"When an attempt was made on the life of Ms Banerjee, in which she was grievously hurt, to cover up the attack, eye-witnesses were planted, illustratively, eye-witnesses Chittaranjan Das and Debabrata Das, who testified that Ms Banerjee's car was hit against an iron pillar, are associates of Suvendu Adhikari, BJP candidate from Nandigram," the memorandum says.
The party said the BJP's state president Dilip Ghosh had uploaded a caricature depicting that she would be hit at Nandigram. Around the same time, numerous complaints were filed by the saffron party with the EC seeking immediate removal of the then police chief and IGP of West Bengal, it said.
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The TMC also gave similar instances of other leaders.
"There is a clear nexus between the post by Dilip Ghosh on Facebook, multiple complaints seeking removal of DGP, the unilateral decision of the ECI to remove the erstwhile (police chief), the plan revealed by Saumitra Khan on Twitter, BJP's request to suspend/remove security personnel of Ms Banerjee, the resultant attempt on the life of Ms Banerjee and the cover-up of the same by Adhikari," the memorandum said.
The TMC delegation also handed over documents containing translated tweets of BJP leaders as well as photographs of Banerjee's car.
"The chairperson's car does not show even a scratch -- clearly demolishing the lie that the vehicle hit an iron pillar on the road.
"In this context, we would also like to mention the unfortunate comment made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the 'Brigade Cholo Rally' on March 7 in which he had said 'If the scooty has decided to topple in Nandigram, what can we do?" the memorandum stated.
After a delegation of TMC leaders met EC officials in Bengal, the poll body on Thursday sent a strongly-worded letter to the party on its memorandum over injuries to Banerjee during the campaign, saying it looks "undignified to even respond" to allegations that the poll panel is doing things in the state at the behest of a "particular party".
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BJP leaders have also had a meeting with the EC and have demanded an independent inquiry into the incident in which Mamata Banerjee got injured, said Party general secretary Bhupender Yadav. The poll panel should make a public video of Mamata Banerjee's March 10 rally in Nandigram and special observers should be appointed for the Nandigram assembly seat where Mamata Banerjee is the candidate, he added.
With PTI Inputs
