Police complaint filed against Abhishek Banerjee over 'misleading' Rejinagar bypoll post

Kolkata: A Returning Officer (RO), acting on behalf of the Election Commission of India (ECI), has lodged a police complaint against Trinamool Congress general secretary and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee over allegedly misleading information shared on social media regarding the Rejinagar Assembly bypoll results.

On Friday, while the counting was underway, Abhishek Banerjee, also the nephew of former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, claimed in a social media post that in a particular booth for the Rejinagar Assembly bypoll, the winning BJP candidate, Sakharav Sarkar, received more votes than the total number of registered voters at that particular booth.

In the post, the Diamond Harbour MP claimed that at Booth No. 109 in Rejinagar, the BJP candidate secured 909 votes even though the total number of registered voters was 772.

The district electoral officer (DEO) & district magistrate (DM) promptly issued a counter statement, rejecting the claims by Abhishek, and said that, as per the electoral roll for that polling station, the total number of registered electors was 1,109, of which 972 votes were polled across all candidates contesting in the Rejinagar bypoll.

On Saturday, the concerned RO, on behalf of the ECI, registered a police complaint against Abhishek Banerjee at the Rejinagar Police Station.

Both Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee are currently in New Delhi to participate in the movement by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.

Now, it remains to be seen whether the Diamond Harbour MP would be summoned to the Rejinagar Police Station for questioning in this matter.

The bypolls for Rejinagar and Nandigram Assembly constituencies in East Midnapore district of West Bengal were conducted on October 6, and the results were declared on October 9. The BJP candidates got elected from both constituencies with massive margins. The party increased its tally in the 294-seat West Bengal Assembly to 209.

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